


Serendipity

by lRinna



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/M, Growing Up, Self-Discovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-04-24 01:39:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 38,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14345271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lRinna/pseuds/lRinna
Summary: Sakura a muggleborn girl discovers the wizarding world. Throughout her years at Hogwarts she finds friendship, love and enemies. A tale of discovering and growing to find a place in the world to call your own.





	1. The First Year

Sakura stared at the looming train before her, pinching herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. But there it was, Hogwarts Express, the train that would take her to a new life that she never dreamed was possible.

“Make sure to write often!”

“But mom!”

“Naruto!”

“I’ll write often…”

Sakura looked at a young boy with blonde hair that was standing by his parents receiving a scolding from his mom. Beyond him, there was another family, doting on a girl with a long blonde ponytail. She wished her parents were here to see her off, but they were busy doctors, who dropped her off with a smile and went back to their full schedules.

“Um… excuse me, what am I supposed to do with my luggage?” Sakura asked the oldest looking person around, a bored looking teen with bright red hair. He turned half-lidded honey eyes upon her and stared for a few seconds, making Sakura uncomfortable.

“Take it to one of the staff.” And he pointed to the adults running around with blue uniforms. Sakura smiled at the boy and called out her thanks, but he was already walking away from her. She dragged her heavy trunk with her, stumbling every few steps, until suddenly the weight was almost gone.

“Allow me to help you, fair maiden with the exquisite pink locks!”

Sakura turned around to see a boy with very bushy eyebrows and a bowl cut smile at her cheerfully. He didn’t seem much older than herself and Sakura wondered what was his age.

“Lee! What are you doing? Let’s go!” A girl with buns on her head called out to the boy that was helping Sakura, but the one named Lee only left when Sakura’s trunk was safely delivered to one of the conductors, that made it disappear with a quick motion of his wand, scaring the pink haired girl.

“Don’t worry, your belongings will be waiting for you in your dorm.” He reassured her, and Sakura climbed on the train, with Lee trailing her.

“It seems I must leave you here, beautiful flower! I’ll see you around the school!” He yelled as he was running away, and Sakura could only offer a polite bow to him. She walked around, looking at the nearby compartments that were filled with students excitedly chatting away until she got to one that had only one small, dark haired girl, who seemed entranced by something outside the window.

“Excuse me, can I join you?” Sakura asked politely, but the girl jumped, scared at the sudden voice.

“Ah. Yes… Of course.” The girl turned her gaze on Sakura, who thought she was quite pretty. Sakura smiled and took the seat across from her, intent on making friends.

“I’m Haruno Sakura, a first year. Well, a first timer, really. I didn’t know I was special at all until I got the letter. My parents, they’re um… What is the word again?” Sakura started conversation, introducing herself to her compartment partner.

“Muggles?” the girl filled in, watching Sakura with rapt attention.

“Yes, that! How about you? Are your parents wizards?”

The girl hesitated a bit and sighed before answering.

“Yes. I’m Hyuuga Hinata from the Hyuuga clan.” She said as if that answered Sakura, who didn’t understand what was so solemn about her.

“Is the Hyuuga clan some sort of wizard family?” Sakura asked and her friend smiled at her.

“Something like that, yes.”

“That’s cool. You must know all about Hogwarts then? I bought the book _Hogwarts, a History_ when I went to that magical bookshop. I’ve must have read it from front to cover a bunch of times now. I’m really curious about the houses. I know that you’re sorted into them, but has anyone ever rejected their house? What about swapping houses? Can you even make friends with people from other houses?” Sakura started to ramble. She’d always been a nerd, so her first instinct when facing unknown prospects was to try and find out as much as she could.

“Well, I don’t think anyone has ever rejected or swapped houses, but I’m fairly sure that making friends from other houses is encouraged. My older cousin’s best friends are both from Gryffindor while he is from Ravenclaw. He told me that only during special occasions are people forced to sit at their table on the Great Hall, and that more often than not, people are always sitting all over the place.” Hinata giggled.

“That’s a relief. What house do you think you’ll be sorted into? I hope to get either Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff.”

“My entire family has always gone to Ravenclaw. I think I’ll be the same.” Hinata answered.

“Well, I really hope we can both be in Ravenclaw, Hinata! I’m sure we’ll become the best friends!” Sakura took her new friend’s hands in her own, and found the other girl blushing but nodding with a smile.

They talked more about Hogwarts and the particular classes they were interested in, when a ruckus started to form outside their door. Shouting and scuffling was heard and suddenly the door opened and three boys fell in, all in various stages of disarray. One was the blonde boy that Sakura had seen in the station, another was a red haired boy with green eyes that looked eerily similar to the one who had talked to her at the station and the last one had onyx hair and eyes, and a really pretty face, but a mean air around them.

“Teme!” The blonde jumped the black haired one, and the red-haired boy sat up, glancing at the two girls in the compartment. Outside there were other students, watching the whole situation with great interest.

“What is going on here?” A girl with blue hair and caramel eyes stepped through the crowd and looked at everything with great interest.

Suddenly everyone started talking at once, creating an even bigger confusion. The girl with blue hair raised her hand and as soon as it started, the cacophony ended. She pointed at Hinata.

“You. Tell me what happened.”

“Ah… Um… Eh…” Hinata blushed wildly and started stuttering. Sakura watched her friend with concern and decided to step in before the girl fainted out of pure anxiety.

“We were sitting here and heard a commotion outside. Suddenly the door opened and these three fell in. Then, he attacked him and this one didn’t do anything.” Sakura quickly explained, motioning to the people as she went through her short tale.

“Thank you. Since neither of you are sorted into houses yet, I cannot deduce any points for this sort of childish misbehavior. However, you will find that the next time I see any of you getting into any sort of trouble, I will be more strict. All of you return to your seats and change into your robes, we will be arriving at Hogwarts shortly.”

The crowd slowly faded away, everyone resuming the usual chatter, leaving the girl behind. She took a seat and sighed.

“Every year there’s always the one group of rowdy first years. I’m Konan, prefect for Ravenclaw house. If any of you see those three fighting again, please let myself or another prefect know. We’re the ones with these.” She pointed to a button on her robes, that had a white P on a blue background. Sakura and Hinata both introduced themselves to the older girl, who smiled and stayed chatting for a bit longer until a whistle blew somewhere.

“Oh, I’ve been here for too long, I must return to my seat. Change into your robes, we’ll be arriving in twenty minutes.” Konan left with a wave and a smile and Sakura liked her already.

Sakura entered a permanent state of wonder as soon as she left the train. The boats that moved by themselves, the looming castle on the hill, all the different students around her and finally the Great Hall, with a ceiling that reflected the sky outside, stars twinkling among the floating candles and the faces of students and teachers watching the wrinkly hat with rapt attention. She scanned the table where the teachers were sitting and recognized the one named Tsunade, who had visited her house the day after her letter had arrived. She had explained to them what Sakura was, claiming to be the vice-headmaster, and Transfiguration master. She had been the one to take Sakura to Diagon Alley and explain to her what Hogwarts was. Tsunade had been incredibly kind to her and short tempered to everyone else, and Sakura already felt incredibly attached to her.

“And now the sorting will begin.” The hat finished his speech and Tsunade stepped forward with a long parchment.

“Aburame Shino!” A boy that hid his face within a scarf was the first to be sorted, and Slytherin was the first house to be chosen. He was received with polite claps from his new housemates and joined them.

“Akimichi Chouji!” A fat boy with a friendly smile walked forward and was immediately sorted into Hufflepuff, which greeted him joyfully.

“Haruno Sakura!” Sakura nervously made her way forward, trying hard to not trip on her own robes. Hinata whispered her a small good luck as she made her way forward, her anxiety reaching new heights. Tsunade gave her a small smile when she made her way to the stool and placed the Sorting Hat atop her head, covering her eyes with its size.

_Hmm, interesting, very interesting. I see great courage and strength, you’d fit in quite well in Gryffindor. But also a kindness and understanding typical of Hufflepuff… Yet a very bright wit… You’d do well in Slytherin… It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a mind such as yours. Where to put you, where to put you indeed._

Sakura could hear a small spark of whispers starting to fly through the room. It had been quite a while since the hat had been placed on her head.

 _Well, little Sakura even though you’ve been the hardest choice so far, I think the best place for you would be…_ **_Ravenclaw!_ **

Sakura removed the hat with shaky hands to look at the table filled with blue and silver. She made out Konan among the crowd and made her way to the older girl with shaky legs. Once seated she looked at Tsunade who seemed to be looking at her with a smile.

“Welcome to Ravenclaw, Sakura!” Konan greeted her cheerfully. By her side was the red haired boy she saw at the train station. He nodded at her, his bored expression never leaving his face.

“Hyuuga Hinata!” Tsunade called out the next name on the list and Sakura watched her new friend make her way to the hat, so pale that Sakura was afraid she’d faint. Once the hat was placed on her head Sakura sent a small prayer hoping that she’d be sorted into Ravenclaw. However what came out of the hat’s head was:

“ **_Hufflepuff!_ ** ”

Sakura watched her friend join the table next to her and smiled at her from across with a nod. She looked very sad.

“Inuzuka Kiba!”

Sakura didn’t pay much attention to the boy that was just called to the front, still focusing on Hinata, who looked pretty upset. Across from Sakura was a boy with long chestnut hair and eyes that were just like Hinata’s.

“Nara Shikamaru!”

As soon as the hat had touched his head, it instantly yelled Ravenclaw, and Sakura found herself clapping alongside the rest of her house. He took the seat to her right, muttering something underneath his breath.

“Sabaku no Gaara!”

The red haired boy from the scuffle made his way to the hat confidently. Sakura admired his confidence, since everyone had seemed pretty shaky so far. The red haired boy from her table actually perked up.

“Sasori, isn’t that your brother?” Konan asked and Sakura connected the dots. It would make sense that they would be brothers, considering the red hair and the similar features.

“Yeah.”

Sakura redirected her attention to Gaara, who looked even smaller with the hat covering half his face. He too seemed to be taking a while to be sorted, but eventually the hat yelled out Slytherin and Sakura could swear she saw Sasori deflate a little. Konan smiled at Sasori and said something that Sakura didn’t catch.

“Uchiha Sasuke!”

The black haired boy from earlier also walked confidently to the hat, smirking. Sakura felt like rolling her eyes at him. His cockiness didn’t appeal to her. He was quickly sorted into Gryffindor, and got loud cheers.

“Uzumaki Naruto!”

Everyone started talking excitedly when the blonde boy Sakura was already familiar with practically bounced is way to the front.

“Who is he?” Sakura asked

“He’s the son of the current Minister of Magic.” Shikamaru told her. He had his head down, as if he was trying to fall asleep.

“There’s a Ministry of Magic?” Sakura asked excitedly. She didn’t know that wizards had a government and quickly wondered about how it would work. Everyone looked at her weirdly, and Konan came to her rescue yet again.

“Sakura has muggle parents.”

The hat announced Gryffindor and everyone’s attention was redirected to the table that was loudly welcoming its newest member.

“Yamanaka Ino!”

A blonde girl was the last to go, and she didn’t take long to also be sorted into Gryffindor.

Once the sorting ceremony was finished, the headmaster spoke words of welcome and suddenly the empty plates that had been sitting atop the table filled themselves with the most appetizing food Sakura had ever seen. Everyone quickly started serving themselves, and Sakura, mindful of the teachings of her parents, took a hearty dose of vegetables. She eagerly chatted with those around her, finding out that Konan and Sasori were the two prefects for that year, Konan’s boyfriend was the prefect from Slytherin, a strawberry blonde with many piercings. She was also introduced to Hyuuga Neji, Hinata’s older cousin, which seemed to be disappointed to see Hinata in Hufflepuff. She was the only girl to be sorted into Ravenclaw that year, so she’d have a dorm room all to herself. Her fellow first year, Shikamaru mentioned that his best friend had also been sorted into Hufflepuff and Sasori even made a comment on how he too had a friend at Hufflepuff, which made Sakura feel slightly less concerned about Hinata.

Once they were all full, Konan told Sasori to escort them to the Ravenclaw tower so she could meet up with her boyfriend. Sakura followed the ginger male closely afraid to get lost. Shikamaru was with her, and they made their way past several hallways until they were in the west part of the castle. They stopped in front of a door with a bronze, eagle-shaped door knocker. It came to life, moving his head to look at all of them, startling Sakura.

“Only two this year?”

“There were few first years.”

“Very well. The maker doesn’t want it, the buyer doesn’t use it, and the user doesn’t know it. What is it?”

The three stood there for a second until Shikamaru answered the riddle:

“A coffin.”

The door opened and they entered a wide airy room, filled with bookcases and a domed ceiling. There were several tables with comfortable looking blue chairs where Sakura could picture students doing their homework. There was a large circular couch surrounding a fireplace and Sakura could feel herself at home.

“You have to answer a riddle every time to get in. The door to the right leads to the boy’s rooms and the one to the left leads to the girl’s rooms.” Sasori explained to them, before heading to the door on the right.

“Troublesome.”

Shikamaru made his way to a love seat by a window and laid down, looking at the sky outside. Sakura made her way to the girl’s rooms. The door led to a hallways with several other blue doors. Each door had a number, from one to seven, which led Sakura to believe that girls were sorted by year. Opening the first door she found a room with five blue canopy beds. They had silver sheets and Sakura chose the one closest to the window. Her trunk was waiting for her in the center of the room. It did feel a little lonely to be alone, but Sakura decided to be optimistic about it, thinking that she could probably invite Hinata over without bothering anyone.

When Sakura was just finishing unpacking her trunk into the dresser by her bed, Konan came in. She sat in one of the other beds and they talked until the moon shone high in the sky. Konan said that there weren’t many girls she liked in Ravenclaw and that most of her friends were from other houses. She promised to help Sakura with whatever she could, for she too was muggleborn. Konan also told her that even if Sasori did seem distant and apathetic, he was nice on the inside and that if she wasn’t around, Sakura could go to him. On that first night, Sakura finally felt like she belonged.

It didn’t take long for her to settle in a schedule. She would frequently eat breakfast in the Hufflepuff table with Hinata, Shikamaru and Chouji. From there, she would go to her classes. Her favorite topics were Transfiguration with Tsunade, Potions with Kakashi and Herbology with Kurenai. Potions was taken with the Slytherin students and Herbology was shared with the Hufflepuffs. She would have lunch at the Ravenclaw table, where Hinata would join her, and also many of Konan’s friends. In the afternoons, she’d head to the library or the Ravenclaw, with Hinata frequently tagging along. It didn’t take long for Hinata to be considered an honorary Ravenclaw member by almost everyone. Sometimes she also went to the Hufflepuff common room, where she was always warmly received by everyone.

As such months passed by quickly and her classes were starting to exit theory and they were starting to put into practice what they were learning.

“For your first potion, you’ll work in pairs, one Ravenclaw, and one Slytherin per cauldron. Sakura looked at both Slytherin boys and decided to pick Gaara. She had talked to him a couple times before, when he had joined the Ravenclaw table on occasion.

They worked in companionable silence, but Sakura was a talkative person by nature and it didn’t take long for her to attempt at conversation.

“So what are your favorite classes?” she asked while dicing the roots into precise cubes. He stirred the potion another three times before answering that he didn’t have any favorite classes.

“I really like potions. And transfiguration. And charms. I really like all of them! Except Defense Against the Dark Arts.”

They worked in silence for a few more beats until Gaara picked up the topic.

“What’s wrong with Defense Against the Dark Arts?”

“I don’t really like the Gryffindorians. They’re so… um…” Sakura couldn’t find the correct words to finish her sentence and trailed off.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was her worst subject. Somehow her spells were never strong enough and the Gryffindor students were always incredibly rowdy. The professor was Jiraya, Head of Gryffindor House, and he let them get away with everything, which annoyed Sakura, who was only there to learn.

“I don’t like them either.” Gaara supplied and Sakura nodded. Sasuke thought he was the best wizard around, Ino was incredibly loud and annoying. Naruto was not that bad, but he would inevitable hang around Ino and Sasuke, making him louder and more full of himself than usual.

“Are you and Sasori going home for the Winter Holidays?” Sakura asked.

“Probably not.”

Sakura smiled. She was also staying, since her parents told her they’d be too busy with work, and she didn’t want to be alone, since Hinata, Shikamaru and Konan were all going home. Having the two Sabaku brothers around would be nice.

That night, she found Sasori working on the Ravenclaw common room and she joined his table. He looked up briefly acknowledging her and she waited for him to give her his attention. Sakura had quickly learned that Sasori wasn’t much of a talker, but as Konan had told her, he was a very nice friend, and they had grown close. Once he finished writing that paragraph, he put his quill down and stared at her.

“You should have your brother come over to the Ravenclaw common room for Christmas.” Sakura smiled at him. He raised an eyebrow and nodded, letting Sakura know that her request had been listened to. She smiled and took out her own homework to finish.

Sakura’s first exam season had been stressful, since she didn’t know what to expect, but with Hinata’s calming presence and Shikamaru’s lack of concerned, Sakura managed to keep her anxiety levels down. She had just walked out of her History of Magic exam and was walking to Potions, nervously biting her nails, running all her material through her head. She saw Gaara walking ahead of her, and hastened her pace to reach him.

“Hiya!” She greeted him. He nodded back at her. They walked in silence until it was broken by another voice.

“Oh hey, if it isn’t the pink nerd.”

Sakura stopped to look at Sasuke, casually leaning against a wall, sneering at her. She knew that they weren’t friends at all, due to her calling him out during the last class of Defense Against the Dark Arts, but she didn’t expect him to resort to this.

“Oh hey, if it isn’t duck butt.” Gaara called out, stepping ahead, glaring at Sasuke.

“What did you call me?” Sasuke hissed, moving towards an aggressive stance. Sakura looked at both boys fearfully.

“Gaara, let’s go. We have Potions in twenty minutes, we don’t want to be late.”

“I don’t even need ten minutes to kick pretty boy’s face in.” Gaara smirked.

“You shitty orphan think you can talk to me like that?!”

Sakura was sure that Gaara was about to do something stupid when another voice interrupted the silence.

“What is going on here?” Tsunade had just appeared and was looking at the situation with something Sakura could swear was mirth.

“Nothing.” Gaara and Sasuke said at the same time, glaring at each other.

“Well then I see no reason for this. Shoo! To your next classes!” She waved them all away, and Sakura made sure to bow politely before following Gaara, who started stomping away in anger. He seethed all the way to the dungeons where their Potions exam was to take place and Sakura kept her mouth shut, trying to avoid pissing him off even more.

The week after exams were finished, Sakura stood by the platform, waving goodbye to her friends which were leaving for their Winter Break. She would miss them for the upcoming two weeks, but she was determined to make the most of it.

“Aw man, it’s sad that Konan and Pain are leaving this break, un.”

Deidara had come with Sakura and Sasori to see everyone off. Deidara was what Sakura would call Sasori’s best friend, although the two spent much of their time arguing. He was a member of what people called Akatsuki, a group made up of 5th years. Konan and Pain were the effective leaders, with Deidara, Sasori, Hidan, Kakuzu, Kisame and Itachi as members. She knew they were involved in a bunch of things like pranks and dangerous experimental magic, but she didn’t care, since they had all been very kind to her. She sometimes liked to think of herself, Hinata, Shikamaru and Gaara as a sort of mini-Akatsuki.

“Where is Gaara? I thought he’d be here with us…” Sakura commented.

“He got detention for fighting with the Uchiha brat.” Sasori explained.

“I still don’t get how someone like Itachi has such a bratty younger brother, yeah!”

Sakura had to agree with Deidara. Her very few interactions with the older Uchiha had all been polite if a bit distant. Him and Kisame were the only two Gryffindor members that Sakura was okay with.

“Yo!”

Sakura looked to see Kisame and Gaara standing outside the castle grounds, the older male shaping a snowball in his hand and Sakura knew exactly what would happen next. By the time Sakura managed to crawl out of the confusion of snow flying everywhere, the two Sabaku siblings were teaming up against Kisame and Deidara. She watched both of them work in tandem and realized that even if they didn’t seem to spend much time together, they still had that sibling bond that gave them the upper hand. The fight ended with the sibling victory and it was Sakura and four exhausted males that joined Kakuzu and Hidan in the Slytherin table.

“What the fuck were you all doing?”

“Snowball fight.”

“And you fuckers didn’t invite me?”

Hidan was the only other person in the world with pink hair besides Sakura. His was paler than hers, but Sakura still felt weirdly fond of him, even if he was loud and potty mouthed. They shared a connection.

On her first day of winter break, Tsunade approached her with a offer of tutoring. Her House Head would offer some specialized spell courses in exchange for help with paperwork. As such, Sakura spent most of her days in the Transfiguration room, where she could see her friends have almost daily snow activities, from making the best snowman (Deidara ended up blowing up his) to ice skating (Kisame was a natural). Tsunade offered to teach Sakura a few basic healing spells, which excited the girl to no end, for the only thing that could best a doctor, was being a magic doctor. She made sure to include that on her letter to her parents.

Christmas came almost too fast for her to notice, and soon Sasori was telling everyone to meet up in the Ravenclaw common room. Hidan and Kakuzu declined, both claiming they didn’t do Christmas. On that morning, Sakura woke up with the sun and was excited to see a small pile of presents at the foot of her bed. She used the levitation charm she had recently mastered to take them all to the common room, where she found Sasori and Gaara with their own two piles. It didn’t take long for Deidara and Kisame to join them and soon they were all opening their own gifts.

Sakura had received a sweater from Hinata, a set of chess from Shikamaru with a note challenging her to a match soon, several snacks from Chouji, a beautiful origami flower from Pein and Konan that changed colors according to her mood, several books from Kisame, Deidara, Sasori and Itachi. Her final present was a small box from Gaara. It contained a magical watch that had so many things in it Sakura, could barely see the time. She smiled brightly at all the friends that were there and missed the ones that weren’t.

The second week of break passed by so fast that Sakura felt she had only blinked and it was gone. The house tables were all full again, and Sakura was yet again running to classes and chasing after homework.

It was on April that she was finally introduced to Quidditch. The school had been buzzing with excitement for weeks. The house cup final was approaching and Slytherin was facing Gryffindor for the title. Sakura had missed all the previous games, never having been much into sports, choosing to stay in and do homework. This time, however, Konan was demanding Sakura be there, to cheer for the Slytherin team with her.

Once she arrived at the stadium, she gasped. It was filled to the brim with students, all wearing either red or green, depending on what team they supported. Konan dragged both Sakura and Hinata to the top of the stands, amongst a sea of green. There they found Gaara, Sasori and Deidara.

They tried their best to explain to Sakura the rules of the game amidst the loud crowd, but as soon as the game started it was impossible to hold a conversation with all the excited yelling. Sakura didn’t understand much of what was going on, just seeing people flying left and right on brooms was wild enough. She recognized Pain, Hidan and Kakuzu among the Slytherin team, and Itachi, Lee and Tenten among the Gryffindor team. The match ended with a Gryffindor win, by a meager ten points, and Sakura was saddened for her disappointed friends.

The Gryffindor win made most of their students even cockier than usual and Sakura started to be bullied even more than usual. Ino was her biggest menace, the blonde girl coming up with the worst nicknames ever for her, constantly making fun of her huge forehead. Hinata wanted Sakura to talk to someone about it, but Sakura would choose not to, deciding that it simply wasn’t worth her time. She could handle a spiteful girl on her own.

As such, Sakura’s days at Hogwarts began to move to an end, with final exams rapidly approaching. Even the Akatsuki members who were always rowdy were focusing for their OWLs, special exams for the fifth years. Sakura would constantly meet Itachi in the library, alongside Konan, Pain and Sasori. She herself spent much time there with Shikamaru, Gaara and Hinata, each trying to score the highest possible grades.

Sakura aced all her exams except for Defense Against the Dark Arts, where she didn’t ace the practical exam. She was happy with her results, however. As such she started packing her things sadly, knowing she’d dearly miss Hogwarts during the summer.

The train ride back home was very different, with Gaara, Shikamaru and Chouji joining her and Hinata. They talked happily, even the lazy Shikamaru choosing to stay awake for most of the journey.

“I would love to have you visit.” Sakura extended the invitation to all of them.

“Of course.” Hinata agreed. Gaara and Chouji nodding in agreement.

“Troublesome.”

When they arrived at the platform, most of her friends bid their goodbye and joined their families. Sakura saw most of the Akatsuki standing around in a circle. Sakura and Gaara joined them. Another round of goodbyes were exchanged among them, and Sakura started to walk to the Muggle world with Sasori and Gaara following her. After crossing the barrier, Sakura saw her parents and headed to them happy to see them after so long. She waved a last goodbye to the two brothers and headed home, already missing all her dear friends.


	2. The Second Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura's second year at Hogwarts is very different from her first. Friendships fall apart, others grow stronger, and life moves on.

Sakura was incredibly nervous as she took the bus to London. It was mid-August, the summer sun piercing her skin, the heat making her even more nervous than usual. She was going to meet Hinata in Diagon Alley so they could purchase their school materials together. Her summer had been uneventful so far. Even though she had invited her friends to visit, none had taken her offer so Sakura spent much of her time reading through the books she had ordered through owl. After speaking with her parents, Sakura had chosen to pursue a career in the Healer arts, which would demand very good grades and commitment from her. As such, she chose to begin with  _ Healing spells for the modern housewitch,  _ a recommendation from Tsunade, her Transfiguration professor and mentor.

Sakura bit her lip and made sure nobody could see the wand in her purse. As she was still a minor, she wasn’t allowed to use any magic, but she didn’t feel comfortable without her wand near her. Her parents had given her an allowance for her to purchase whatever she needed and sent her on her way. Sakura peeked at the watch Gaara had given her last Christmas. It was complex and told her all sorts of information, from the time to the local wind speed. She took a while to learn to use it but now she couldn’t imagine her life without it.

She arrived at her stop a quarter to ten, the agreed meeting hour and walked to the Leaky Cauldron, where she would meet Hinata. When she arrived, Sakura didn’t see any sign of her best friend so she picked a spot to sit and look around at the other wizards around her. They all looked incredibly different from each other and Sakura entertained herself by picturing what they did for a living.

“Ah, Sakura!” 

Sakura looked at the entrance to see Hinata and her cousin Neji. They walked to her and greetings were exchanged. Neji nodded to Hinata and left them.

“He’s not staying?” Sakura asked, watching Neji disappear through the door that led to Diagon Alley.

“Ah no. He’s meeting up with Lee and Tenten.” Hinata smiled. Sakura nodded and together they headed to the alley. Sakura faced the wall of bricks and looked at Hinata. She no longer remembered which one was the magical one. Hinata giggled and pulled her wand out. She quickly performed the correct sequence and Sakura paid special attention this time. The wall before them quickly gave way to Diagon Alley.

Sakura had been to Diagon Alley last year, but it had been a rather fast visit with Tsunade, and she had spent too much time being surprised by everything that she was glad to have the time to properly look around and explore.

“I need to visit Gringotts first to trade my muggle money for wizarding money.” Sakura said. The two witches walked there, avoiding busy shoppers and occasionally stopping to glance at a particular shop.  Once they arrived at the bank, they joined a small line of people looking to exchange their money. In front of the line was a familiar head of blue hair.

“Konan?” Sakura asked. The blue head turned around and they were happy to confirm that it was indeed their close friend. She quickly motioned for them to join her, and Sakura walked to her, feeling the glares from the others in line.

“Sakura! Hinata! I’m so glad to see you two!” Konan greeted both of them with a kind smile.

“Next!” The annoyed goblin called out. Sakura and Konan quickly exchanged their muggle money for wizard currency and walked out into the bright sun.

“Are you here to buy school supplies too?” Hinata politely asked and Konan nodded. She was now a 6th year.

“I’m not the only one. I have some company with me.” She pointed to the nearby ice cream shop, where Pain, Deidara, Sasori and Gaara were enjoying a cold treat. Sakura’s face brightened at seeing so many of her friends. The girls joined them and quickly started chatting.

“Nobody came to visit, even though I invited all of you.” Sakura pouted.

“I really wanted to go, but my father wouldn’t allow me. I’ve already explained to you that he’s very… difficult.” Hinata sighed sadly fidgeting with her pouch. Sakura patted her friend’s head.

“I invited everyone but I haven’t heard from any of you.” Sakura glanced at all of them, who avoided her gaze.

“We’re not really people that you should show to your parents, yeah?” Deidara claimed nervously. Sakura glanced at the obviously uncomfortable looks that some of them had.

“My parents are two doctors that are almost never home. This summer has been very lonely.” Sakura looked at the ground, avoiding everyone’s eyesight.

“Well, the summer is not over yet.” Gaara said. Sakura smiled at him. She had grown to really like Gaara’s friendship. He didn’t say much, but he always said the right things. Gaara was particularly good at cheering her up with words. 

They finished their cold treats and split ways. Konan and Pain left together, followed by Deidara and Sasori, leaving the three youngest ones by themselves. They decided to leave the books for last, since they were the heaviest to carry around. The three first visited the supplies store, where they found Deidara and Sasori arguing over art in the back. There they replenished their parchments, quills, ink and other things they needed for school. Sakura decided to spend a little extra to purchase an unbreakable quill, since she still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of using them and broke way too many quills.

From there they visited the robes store, to buy new robes for all of them. Now that they knew their houses, they were able to get more customizable robes, as long as they matched their house colors. Finally they went to the bookstore, and Sakura wished she had more money than she had, since there were so many books that she wanted. She had to content herself to staying to the list of books included in her Hogwarts letter, not having enough money for more.

“Ah, Hogwarts students. Second-years? Right this way, please.” The clerk directed them to the textbook part of the store, pointing at stacks of books for Hogwarts. Hinata and Sakura both grabbed a copy of every book in their list, but Gaara only got the one for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

“Aren’t you going to purchase the rest of your books?” Sakura asked, concerned for her friend.

“I’ll just use my brother’s old books.” He claimed, making his way to the purchase section, not allowing any more questions.

“Gaara and Sasori are orphans. Their parents died when they were young, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they ran into money problems.” Hinata whispered to Sakura, knowing that her friend wasn’t as familiar with wizarding families. Everyone knew the tale of the talented Sabaku couple, Aurors that had died in the line of duty, fighting against the evil wizard Orochimaru. Sakura nodded to Hinata, and decided that she would steer clear of such subjects until Gaara felt comfortable enough with her to talk about it.

Purchases in hand, the three wizards headed to the Leaky Cauldron to meet up with their upperclassmen for lunch. Deidara and Sasori were already there, the blonde grumbling under his breath. Sasori seemed immersed in a book, and Sakura glanced at its cover.

“Arithmancy for 6th years? What is that?” She asked, puzzled about a subject she had never heard about. 

“It’s some fancy thing with numbers and stuff, yeah.” Deidara responded, glaring at the offending textbook.

“It’s the study of the magical properties of numbers, one of my favorite subjects.” Sasori answered, closing the textbook and facing the new arrivals. Sakura looked at the book curiously, trying to picture how numbers would have magical properties. Deidara rolled his eyes and signalled the wizard standing behind the balcony.

They ate without much talk, each teenager exhausted after a morning of laborious shopping. They were all content to sit in silence, enjoying the company of their peers. Eventually, once she finished her meal, Sakura broke the silence, asking the question that was on her mind.

“Where’s Konan and Pain?”

“Probably in some fruity restaurant making love eyes at each other, yeah.” Deidara answered and Sakura nodded in understanding. She observed the two guys sitting across from her and wondered out loud:

“Do any of you two have girlfriends?”

Gaara started to cough while the two older teenagers froze mid-action. They exchanged a glance and a sigh. Hinata patted Gaara’s back in concern, looking at Sakura with a blush on her face.

“This isn’t a question to just spring on a guy, yeah? I don’t date, it would be a disservice to humanity to keep me chained to just one girl, un. Why do you ask Sakura?” Deidara turned a predatory grin on the younger girl who shrugged.

“I was just curious. Popular guys, plenty of girls, it’s weird to not date around, I think.”

“Sakura. Are you interested in dating?” Sasori asked. Sakura wrinkled her nose and violently shook her head.

“No way! Most guys I meet are stupid and I’m much more interested in my books than snogging.” She crossed her arms and glared at Sasori, mildly offended that he’d ask her something so obvious. She missed the curious look Deidara and Gaara directed her, both sparkling with interest.

“That’s my view as well. I wish to enter the Ministry of Magic, and dating would take up too much of my time.” Sasori answered and Sakura could relate with his answer, even if she had a suspicion that it wasn’t all there was to it.

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Neji, who had come to collect Hinata. They were supposed to return to the Hyuuga compound after lunch, much to Sakura and Hinata’s sadness. After a tight hug and a wide smile, Sakura watched her friend leave. It was only after she couldn’t see the raven-haired girl anymore that she allowed herself to deflate with a pout.

“Are you going to head home too?” Gaara asked, eyeing the pinkette with concern. Sakura looked at her watch and sighed. She knew her parents wouldn’t be home until late, but she supposed that she could get a headstart in reading her new textbooks.

“Probably. I did tell my parents that I was going out with another girl. I don’t know how they’ll feel about me being alone with boys.” She pulled out her backpack and started to fit the most she could inside, but it wasn’t long until she realized that most of her textbooks wouldn’t be able to fit. 

“We’ll escort you home.” Sasori offered and pulled her books to him. He opened his own backpack and easily fit all of Sakura’s books, in addition to his own, Deidara’s and Gaara’s. Sakura eyed him curiously. She knew that there were such things as extension charms, but she had never seen one in action. Idly she wondered if she could save up some money to buy one of those for herself.

Taking the bus with the three wizards was a challenging adventure. Neither possessed muggle money, were used to such means of public transportation or even know how to behave. Deidara kept looking at all the other passengers with shameless obviousness, making many of them so uncomfortable they’d move away from the group. Sasori spent much of his time analyzing the map of bus stops, trying to make sense of the route taken. Gaara looked out the window, occasionally asking Sakura about a shop or other point of interest. They eventually made it to her stop, and all three of them almost looked sad to leave the bus, Deidara pointing out all the differences between the Muggle bus and the Night Bus, a wizarding means of transportation. The odd group passed by the suburban townhouses until they reached Sakura’s, which looked exactly like all the other ones around it. Deidara made a comment about how Muggles had no artistic sense whatsoever, and Sasori agreed, prompting a surprised reaction from everyone involved, since Deidara and Sasori never agreed on anything involving art.

“And we’re here. Make yourselves at home, I’ll get some tea.”

The three looked around with great interest, being their first time in a Muggle household. It was a clean and simple household, almost straight out of a furniture catalogue, perfectly arranged with a pastel-white color scheme. There were some pictures in a side table, a couple at a wedding and several of Sakura through her years. Gaara noticed that the pictures had only her, none included herself and her parents.

“Sit down, feel free to stay around, my parents won’t be home until late.” She took a tray to the coffee table, a mug and four matching tea cups made the set, and Gaara helped Sakura with the tea, while Deidara and Sasori finished their inspection of the house.

“I saw this at Muggle Studies, yeah! It’s a tellyvision!” Deidara pointed excitedly, approaching the apparatus with care.

Sakura laughed at him and turned on the television, startling all of the three males, increasing her mirth. They watched it with great interest while drinking their tea, and Sakura was happy to finally see people around the house. After the tea was finished, she invited them upstairs, to her bedroom. It was significantly more lived-in than the rest of the house, with clutter on the table, piles of books scattered on the floor and her Hogwarts Trunk beneath the bed.Sasori deposited her books by the table, and Sakura thanked him yet again for facilitating their transportation. Shortly after that, they got ready to leave, with a renewed promise for a potential visit. Once outside, they called the Night Bus, and it was Sakura’s turn to be surprised to see a bright red bus with two storied materialize on her sidewalk. She bid them a safe journey and watched them leave with a smile on her face.

Even though there was a promise for a visit, the next time Sakura saw her friends was in platform 9 and ¾ , as they were getting ready to board the Hogwarts Express for another year in the magical school.She was excited for another year there, and missed the castle dearly.After turning in her luggage, she excitedly hopped on the train, looking for any of her friends. She found Hinata and Shikamaru in one, and happily joined them, greeting her best friend with a hug, and the lazy boy with a swift poke to the ribs. Gaara shortly joined them too, and they happily traded stories all the way to the castle.

This time, Sakura was not a first year, and took the carriages to the castle alongside all the other upperclassmen. She made it to the Ravenclaw table to greet and smile at the many familiar faces that comprised of her Housemates. As she sat down, and Headmaster Sarutobi addressed the school, Sakura finally felt at home.

Her second year started very differently from her first one. This time Sakura was well-acquainted with the way to her classes, and didn’t need to rush in case she got lost. She knew her professors, and she had already taken the time to familiarize with her textbooks over the summer. Yet again she had Potions with Slytherin, Defense Against the Dark Arts with Gryffindor and Herbology with Hufflepuff. Everything was shaping up to be much the same as last year, until Headmaster Sarutobi made a big announcement one night, taking everyone by surprise.

It was the 500th anniversary of Hogwarts and they were going to have a competition to celebrate, where each year would compete for the honor of their house, and that the house with the most winners would be crowned the winner and receive eternal glory. There would be five elements to the competition, each chosen by a Head of House to represent their biggest talent, ending with a duel. All students were encouraged to participate and compete with their peers. Said announcement prompted the Great Hall to explode in noise, students excitedly talking with their peers, until the Headmaster interrupted again with his booming voice.

“The first challenge shall be the Hufflepuff challenge, and will take place on Halloween.” The headmaster sat down and dinner was served, but many seemed too interested in talking to eat.

“This is so troublesome…” Shikamaru commented, filling his plate with pie.

“I’m excited! I will surely do my best to win!” Sakura always had a bit of a competitive streak in her, and she was certain she had all the tools needed to be very successful at this.

“How will you win the duel if Defense Against the Dark Arts is your worst subject?” Shikamaru lazily took a piece of his pie, not noticing Sakura had frozen while collecting salad for herself. She admitted that she wasn’t particularly good at using spells to harm others, and Shikamaru was right. If she didn’t improve, she’d never be able to win the contest, but Sakura was never one to back down from a challenge and decided to renew her dedication to her worst subject.

Unfortunately for Sakura, the tournament ended up having the worst side effects.The Houses were practically at war with each other, and the liberties she had enjoyed in her first year were not available to her anymore. No longer could she sit at other tables, invite people to the Ravenclaw common room or even be seen hanging out with students from other houses. Her one solace was that Sasori found the whole affair to be completely idiotic, and he maintained his friendship with Deidara. Unlike Hinata, who was bullied by the other Hufflepuff students to stay away from Sakura, Deidara and Sasori were still seen around together, and Sakura used this to exchange messages with Hinata through them. The rest of the Akatsuki, however was split, even Konan and Pain were not talking to each other, much to everyone’s great surprise.

The worst part, Sakura decided, were the joint classes. Potions and Herbology had always been very nice to her, since she would constantly partner with Gaara and Hinata for work. But now, she was stuck to Shikamaru all the time, and although he was her friend, Sakura missed Gaara and Hinata dearly.

“This whole thing is stupid!” She exploded one night in the Ravenclaw common room. It was yet another night with her and Konan doing homework by themselves.

“Sakura?” Konan asked, surprised at the sudden outburst from the normally polite and kind girl.

“This whole tournament is stupid. I hate that we’re at war with other classes! I hate that I can’t spend time with my friends like I could before! Don’t you miss your boyfriend?” Sakura glared at Konan, incredibly upset at this whole situation. Konan smiled at the roseate hired girl.

“Of course I do, but House pride has always been an incredibly important part of Hogwarts. Besides, my relationship with Pain will not falter over this.” Konan stated confidently. Sakura eyed her suspiciously.

“Are you sure? There’s that one blonde girl from Slytherin that’s been awfully close to him recently…”

Konan’s grip on her quill tightened and the fragile feather snapped. She took several deep breaths before directing her attention to Sakura, who already felt guilty for saying something like that.

“I didn’t want this either. Pain did. I will respect his choice.” Konan said through gritted teeth.

“Then why are you even participating?” Sasori had just joined them, looking incredibly bored. Konan shot him a piercing glare.

“Because Professor Tsunade declared that at least one student from every year must participate. And you’re not, and I’m not letting Steve represent Ravenclaw.” Konan’s words sliced like paper cuts, but Sasori was completely unfazed. Sakura understood Konan. Shikamaru had been suspiciously hard to find since the announcement of the tournament and Sakura was sure that it was simply because he found it to be way too troublesome to be involved.

Halloween week was finally here and the school was buzzing with excitement over the claimed Hufflepuff challenge. Speculation ran wild and student participation in classes was at an all-time low, much to Sakura’s displeasure. In the eve of Halloween, the Headmaster announced at dinner that classes would be cancelled the following day and that all students were to await further instructions at their common houses. That night, Sakura didn’t sleep well.

The next morning found all of Ravenclaw house loitering in their common room, a pregnant silence permeating the room, most students in deep reflection. Tsunade appeared at 2 in the afternoon and called all the seventh and sixth years. Sakura wished Konan good luck and returned to her seat by Shikamaru and Sasori. She looked at Neji on the other side of the room, who was meditating by himself and silently wished him luck too. At 3, Tsunade returned to collect all fifth and fourth years and Sakura watched more people leave. Half of Ravenclaw house was gone now, and Sakura found herself growing more anxious with every passing minute. The next time Tsunade walked in, Sakura was sure she was shaking.

“Relax, you’ll do fine.” Sasori commented, eyeing the girl with concern. Shikamaru whispered another complaint and got up with Sakura when they were called, much to her surprise. He placed a hand on her back and with his help, she somehow managed to make it to where her favorite teacher was waiting. Tsunade looked at her with concern, and asked if she needed to go to the Medical Wing, to which Sakura responded by vigorously shaking her head, afraid that if she opened her mouth, she might whimper instead.

Tsunade took them to a classroom near the Hufflepuff common room. There she left the third years, and took the second years to the classroom next to it. She gave Sakura a reassuring pat on the head and left them there. Inside, Professor Kakashi was waiting for them and pointed at two tables. As soon as they sat down, he waved his wand and a piece of parchment was placed in front of them.

“Inside, there’s a secret. It’s something someone thinks of you. You may look inside if you wish. Or you may choose not to look. Either way, you must stay here for thirty minutes.”

Shikamaru immediately laid his head on his desk, and pushed the parchment aside. He closed his eyes and Sakura knew he would nap throughout the whole test. She glared at him for it, for she didn’t understand the purpose of this. Sakura knew the characteristics that Hufflepuff was known for. Were they testing her patience? To stay there for thirty minutes? Were they testing her loyalty? To see the secret and not say anything about it? Or maybe did they want her to not look at the secret… Sakura didn’t know what to do, and she hated not knowing what to do. She looked at the professor, but his face was hidden behind a book with a nondescript orange cover. 

Sakura looked at the clock and saw that only five minutes had passed, her agony increasing. She was afraid of failing this test, knowing that she’d be a complete disappointment if she failed this. Sakura was sure that she’d never be able to live it down if she failed the current test. She worked harder than anyone to prove that she belonged in that place, working hard to earn good grades and be the model student. Maybe that’s what the secret said, she thought. Maybe the secret was actually that she was the most insecure person around.

Sakura looked at the clock again. Ten minutes had passed. Beside her, Shikamaru was calmly napping, and Sakura tried to get his attention, but he would not budge. Kakashi looked at her and shook his head once, and Sakura understood that she was not allowed to seek her friend for help, she was truly alone. Her hand made its way to the desk, fingers lightly touching the parchment and her throat closed. Old insecurities crawled their way into the forefront of her mind, gripping her heart in a vicious vice. Memories from her years before Hogwarts, where she would be the outcast in school came forward, and soon her bullies were replaced by her current friends, shunning her for failure.

Another look at the clock told her fifteen minutes had passed. Sakura had never felt time pass by so slowly before, and vaguely entertained the notion that the clock was charmed to go slower. She watched the seconds tick by and sadly saw that the clock was working as intended. She closed her eyes and tried to think of what Hinata would do in this situation. Surely the kind girl would never look at the parchment in front of her. She would trust that her friends wouldn’t secretly hate her. She would be patient to wait. Sakura thought of Deidara, who probably would be confident enough in himself to not care about what someone else would think. She thought about Sasori and Neji, who were probably too cool to care. Even Gaara wouldn’t fail this test, she thought. 

Ten minutes to go, and her resolve strengthened. She would trust her friends, the would never hold a grudge against her. The secret was probably something incredibly silly like Hinata is jealous of your eye color, or Gaara thinks your pink hair looks weird. She stole another glance at Shikamaru, who probably didn’t care about any secrets. Five minutes to go, and Sakura’s eyes never left the clock, counting down the minutes.

At exactly thirty minutes, Kakashi snapped his book closed, waking Shikamaru up with the noise. He looked at both students and smiled.

“You both passed. You may look at the paper now if you wish.”

Sakura let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, and almost cried in relief. She gingerly opened the big secret and started to laugh at the absurdity of it, earning surprised looks from the other people in the room.

_ Hinata has always been jealous of your self-confidence. _

Here she had been, conjuring doomsday scenarios in her head, completely afraid of other people’s opinion of her, and someone out there thought she had enough self-confidence to inspire jealousy. Shikamaru got up, leaving his paper untouched.

“Aren’t you curious about yours?” Sakura asked, picking it up.

“I already know what it says.” He left the room and Sakura returned the paper to its place. She wasn’t about to look into other people’s secrets, she decided. Sakura also left the room, and hurried to join the pineapple headed housemate of hers on their way to the common room. Upon arrival, they found only Konan and Sasori there.

“How was it?” He asked. Konan seemed pretty upset over something, Sakura noticed but decided not to comment on it.

“We both passed.” Shikamaru answered.

“What was your test?” Sasori asked curiously.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Sakura responded. Sasori nodded and Konan too. Together the four of them left to the Great Hall for Halloween Dinner, which was uncharacteristically silent, only a few whispers here and there. Sakura noticed that everyone seemed a bit reflective and deduced that all the students probably had their loyalty, patience and perseverance tested today. It didn’t take long for the last few students to filter in, and soon the Headmaster was giving his speech.

“I hope today’s exam served to remind you all of the importance of loyalty, patience and your bonds of friendship. I know that every one of you wants to bring glory to your House, but you should consider what is truly most important to you. The Ravenclaw challenge will take place after exams are finished, so please make sure to focus on those first.”

Food was served and Sakura filled her plate, suddenly realizing that she was starving. She was distracted from her food however, when most of Hufflepuff students stood up from their table, and many of them walked to their friends in other houses, electing to sit there. Hinata beelined to Sakura, placing herself to her right. Deidara followed her, squeezing between Konan and Sasori. It was as if a spell was broken, the gloomy silence that had been haunting the Great Hall since the contest began was gone, and the usual sounds of happy chatter echoed, warming the place and making Sakura smile.

After that showing, Hufflepuff House mended friendship with all the other Houses, but they were not so nice to each other. Slytherin and Gryffindor students were still starting fights in the hallways, and some of the haughtier Ravenclaws still refused to talk to Slytherin and Gryffindor. Sakura, however refused to be one of them, and in the next Potions class, she resumed her traditional spot by Gaara, much to the redhead’s surprise.

“How did you do on the first challenge?” She asked him, as they were waiting for their potion to brew in a low fire for twenty minutes.

“I failed it in the first five minutes.” He grumbled. She blinked at him and smiled. While she had thought then that Gaara likely wouldn’t care, she could see now that the Slytherin in him wasn’t about to pass on finding out a secret.

“I almost failed several times myself.” She shared. He looked at her in surprise. Everyone seemed to believe that Sakura wouldn’t have had any issues with it, for she gave away a solid impression of confidence. “Oh yeah, I was very afraid of what others thought of me.” She added candidly and Gaara nodded at her.

“I’m sure you’ll ace the Ravenclaw one too.” He grumbled, in support of her and she smiled brightly.

“I have the utmost faith in you too, Gaara.” 

Fall quickly turned to Winter, and everyone was preparing for exams and for the dreaded Ravenclaw exam. Most students seemed to agree that it would be some sort of difficult written exam, but Sakura had other things in her mind. Her parents had asked that she come home for Christmas, for they were planning on taking a vacation and visit France and Italy. Sakura was obviously excited to travel with her parents, but she was also upset that she wouldn’t get to spend Christmas with her friends in Hogwarts. It was only when Hinata mentioned that there were several interesting Wizarding History museums in Italy that Sakura replied to her parent’s letter with an agreement.

Exams came and went, and the Ravenclaw test was indeed a written exam, one of the hardest that Sakura had ever taken, drawing upon every inch of knowledge she had, and a few questions she was sure hadn’t even been covered yet, only knowing the answers from the times she had read Sasori and Konan’s textbooks. Students had been allowed to leave the exam at any time, for failing the questions would result in a minus point. At that announcement, half the school left the great hall, where the exam was being taken. In the end, it turned out that the whole point was not the answers themselves, but the confidence in their own knowledge, for all those that had stayed until the end had passed. Sasori complained at that, for the only reason he had even partaken in the test had been to test his own knowledge. Later Tsunade mentioned that the other part of the exam was to be able to cheat successfully, for a true Ravenclaw would pursue knowledge at any cost, and that the students were expected to use magic for cheating. Sakura then joined Sasori in his complaints, for she had taken it very seriously, spending extra hours in the library studying for it.

As such Sakura left school for the Holidays, finishing the first half of her second year, which she thought had passed way too fast for her own taste. Travelling with her parents turned out to be just the thing she needed, since it had been far too long since she had been able to cuddle with her mother or do puzzles with her dad. Hinata had been right as well, visiting Wizarding Museums in Italy had been most exciting, and she found herself wishing she could also see the ones in Ireland and Germany. On Christmas, Sakura received many owls with gifts from her friends, much to her parent’s surprise. Even though she had used owl mail before, they still got a fright whenever one of them rapped on a window. They promised her to get her own owl next year, and her mother even decided that she would learn how to use them so she could speak to her daughter more often.

It was snowing when Sakura returned to Hogwarts, and was glad to see everyone in good spirits, except for Konan, who seemed particularly upset. That night, the blue-haired girl joined Sakura in the second-year dorm and cried while explaining that she had hoped Pain would set aside their differences during the Holidays, but that he had refused to do so, claiming he was in it to win it all, much to the despair of his sweetheart. Sakura consoled her friend to the best of her ability, and thought that dating someone from a different House seemed way too difficult to be worth the hassle.

The Gryffindor challenge was the week after everyone returned, and Sakura was genuinely afraid. Hinata had quit the whole thing upon returning and the two girls were sitting by the Ravenclaw common room fireplace discussing the future challenge. 

“It’s obviously going to require courage and bravery yes?”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. I don’t feel particularly brave. Or strong.”

“Have more faith in yourself, you’ll do fine.”

The day of the challenge finally arrived, and Sakura had half a mind to quit the whole thing, and simply watch from the sidelines. Unfortunately she didn’t, and she found herself going to the Western Dungeons, a part of the castle she had never seen before. Tsunade had a sour look as she guided the Ravenclaw students to the challenge. Only few of them were still in it, since half the students had quit after the first two challenges. She called out names and they’d enter a door. Sakura would occasionally hear a scream, or sobs and she found herself getting more and more nervous as her time approached. 

“Sakura. You’re up.” Sakura slowly walked to the door, wand in hand, trying to image what horrors she might find. Tsunade looked at her sadly, and quietly whispered good luck before opening the door and allowing the girl inside. The room was completely empty, except for the door she had entered through.

Sakura walked to the middle of the room cautiously, expecting some sort of attack, but saw nothing. She turned around and noticed Hinata and Konan. She walked to them, but they didn’t seem to see her there. They were chatting with each other happily, but Sakura couldn’t hear what they were saying.

“Hello?”

More people started to show up. Her parents, Sasori and Gaara. Deidara, Hidan and Kisame. Even Itachi, Pain and Kakuzu were there. She tried everything to get their attention, but they couldn’t hear her, and she couldn’t touch them. It was as if she was a ghost. Sakura was determined to not lose, and she tried a spell to catch their attention, a simple counter-spell, to potentially reverse whatever was happening. At first, it seemed to have no effect, but suddenly hooded figures appeared and started attacking her friends and family. Her parents were the first to fall, and Sakura ran to them, casting a protection spell around them. She kneeled by their side, trying to stop their bleeding. But none of the healing spells she knew worked, and Sakura started to cry, for there was nothing she knew what to do. She watched all her friends fall one by one, and she could do nothing but sit there, crying desperately. At some point she heard a door open, but she fainted before she could see what was happening.

When Sakura felt herself returning to conscience, her mind was fuzzy, and she could hear two people yelling.

“This whole situation is ridiculous! How could you let these children face a Boggart on their own? The second and first years deserved a completely different test!” Sakura was sure that was Tsunade.

“Most of the second years were able to face their fears successfully.”

“That does not excuse the trauma you inflicted on those who didn’t! You harmed one of my students!”

“Just because you like the girl doesn’t mean that she gets preferential treatment.” A solid smack echoed through the room and Sakura opened her eyes to face a white ceiling.

“Jiraya. Tsunade. We’ll continue this another time. The girl has awakened.” Sakura recognized the voice of the Headmaster and the sound of hurried heels making the way to her was heard. Soon, Tsunade was present in her field of vision and Sakura breathed a sigh of relief to see a familiar face that saw her.

“Professor my parents… My friends…” She started to cry again, and Tsunade pulled Sakura into a tight hug.

“They’re all fine. Everyone’s fine. It was just a Boggart.”

Sakura sobbed harder with relief. None of what she experienced had been real, and she was so glad to know that everything was okay.

“I’m so glad, I couldn’t protect any of them… I was so useless.”

“It’s okay, Sakura. You’re okay. Everyone’s safe.”

Tsunade eventually released the crying girl, and Sakura could see that even she had shed some tears. The Headmaster was still there, watching the scene play out patiently.

“Well Miss Haruno, no one can fault you for fearing for your loved ones, and I am happy to see you well.”

Sakura blushed at the headmaster’s kind words and nodded. He told her that she had failed the test, however and he recommended a hot cup of cocoa. After that he left, Sakura wondering about their cryptic headmaster, who seemed to know everything.

“I wouldn’t recommend continuing on with the challenges, Sakura. You’ve done well so far, but…” Tsunade eyed the girl with concern, knowing that she wouldn’t do well in the Slytherin challenge either.

“I don’t want to partake in this stupid contest anymore.” Sakura sniffled. Tsunade nodded at her with a smile, and the Head Nurse showed up.

“Ah, good to see you awake. You’re the first one of the bunch. We got a full ward today with that Gryffindor challenge.”

“Take good care of her, Shizune."

Tsunade marched out, intent on yelling at Jiraya some more.

“Ah, she never changes…”

Sakura knew that Shizune, the Head Nurse, had also studied under Tsunade when she was at Hogwarts, and Sakura decided to visit the Medical Wing of the castle more often, so that she might learn a couple things herself. After checking on a few things, Shizune declared Sakura was healthy enough, and allowed visitors. Hinata was the only one to come, however.

“Sasori and Konan are both plotting something against Gryffindor. Everyone knows that Prof. Tsunade is very upset with Prof. Jiraya, so Ravenclaw has declared open war on them. They wish you well and they promise to make a prank that will surely make you laugh.” Hinata reported. Sakura smiled and felt slightly better after the day’s events. They didn’t talk about what she saw, for Sakura was not ready for that, and Hinata knew not to push.

The next day Shizune sent Sakura off with a bottle of sleeping draught to be taken for the next couple days. She made the girl promise to return in case she had any nightmares, and Sakura made her way to the Ravenclaw common room with Hinata by her side. When she arrived, she was met with a welcoming party, and Sakura had the suspicion that at least someone knew what her fear was. Deidara set off fireworks, Konan distributed cake, and even Shikamaru made a promise to persevere and bring Ravenclaw the win. Sakura smiled at everyone, and in the confusion of one of Deidara’s fireworks, escaped to a corner where Sasori and Gaara were speaking in hushed tones. They stopped as soon as she got close enough to hear, and Sakura was curious, but she decided to pretend nothing happened. She couldn’t fault them for holding secrets from her. She didn’t want anyone to know what happened in that dungeon.

“I’m glad you’re well again.” Sasori offered her a seat between them, which Sakura gladly took.

“I have a small headache, but that’ll pass.” Sakura smiled at them. She noticed Gaara seemed more distant than usual, not even offering her any words of well wishes, until Sasori snaked a hand behind her and slapped him in the back of his head. The two siblings glared at each other and Gaara grumbled some pleasantries before stalking off, leaving the common room. Sasori sighed and Sakura told him not to worry. She didn’t hold anything against Gaara, she was sure that everyone was a bit shaken up.

The war between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor started with a prank where somehow, the Gryffindor common room had been completely dyed blue, with a big bronze R in the middle. Sakura did indeed laugh, and she was mildly sure that Kisame had something to do with it, since the tall man seemed to smirk a lot more. Sakura confirmed her suspicions when the next week, he pulled her into an empty classroom to make sure she was okay, and to tell her that Gryffindor was planning on egging the Ravenclaw tower.

“Glad to see you’re holding strong, Squirt. Hate to see that pretty smile go away.”

Hidan had also taken part in the anti-Gryffindor sentiment, cursing any that dared go near him, and spending almost all his afternoons in detention for foul-language. Even though Ravenclaw and Slytherin weren’t on particularly good terms, he did one day escort Sakura to Defense Against the Dark Arts and made sure everyone in the classroom knew he’d retaliate if anything happened to her in there. Nobody dared do anything to her since then.

The only two people that didn’t seem to be in a good mood were Gaara and Konan. Gaara had been closed off since then, and although Sakura made a significant effort, she couldn’t seem to recover the camaraderie they had before. Eventually she gave up, and the two worked in silence. 

Konan had hoped that Ravenclaw’s war against Gryffindor would bring her and Pain closer together, but the man had high ambitions, and he would not be deterred from them. Sakura could do nothing but watch her friend grow more quiet and sullen as time went by, solidifying her thought that this whole competition was the worst idea ever.

Slytherin’s challenge happened during Valentine’s Day, and Konan chose to abstain. Sakura and Hinata kept her company, trying to cheer her up, but the older girl spent most of the day in bed, alternating between anger and crying. They only found out the results at dinner, where Shikamaru told them he passed and that it had been a very troublesome affair. The following day, there was a note on the common room, with the posting of each duel, and when they’d take place. Sakura noticed that the only second years left were Shikamaru, Sasuke, Naruto and Gaara. 

The war between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor lasted the week before finals, when the Ravenclaw students decided there were better things to do, such as preparing for exams. Kisame and Deidara looked visibly upset over this. Deidara was planning on setting off fireworks in the Gryffindor common room in the middle of the night. With Kisame’s help he did it anyways, and Ravenclaw did not claim to have taken part in the prank.Sakura was too busy with studying to care much about the contest anymore, but everyone else seemed particularly interested in the outcome of the duels.

“I hope nobody gets badly injured.” Hinata had mentioned one day in the library.

“I just want this whole mess to end.” Sakura grumbled, struggling with a paper for History of Magic.

Finals came and went, Sakura achieved the perfect scores she wanted and she was almost completely content. All that she had left were the duels to determine the winner of the tournament she had come to hate. A Slytherin first year was the first winner, and the headmaster called out the second years forward. Sasuke was fighting Gaara and Naruto was fighting Shikamaru. Sakura noticed that Hinata watched the second duel with great intensity and she wondered if the girl had developed a crush on the lazy guy. Sasuke won the duel, much to Sakura’s immense displeasure, but Shikamaru had also won his. Hinata disappeared before Shikamaru was crowned winner, and Sakura wondered if maybe her theory had been wrong. Those thoughts flew out of her head when the winner of the second years sat next to her, complaining about how troublesome this entire situation was. He earned several cheers for his house and Sakura saw the rare smile that graced his face.

Neji won a duel against a girl named Temari, a Gryffindor fifth year won, and finally the sixth years were up for dueling. Pain, Kakuzu, Hidan, Itachi, Deidara and Kisame were all up for fighting and it took a long while until Pain was finally declared the winner of the sixth years. Sakura turned to smile at Konan, but the girl was stonily looking someplace other than the Slytherin sixth year that was trying to get her attention. With Ravenclaw and Slytherin tied, it was up to the seventh years to decide, and eventually the victory belonged to Slytherin. Green and Silver banners descended from the sky and Sakura was glad to see this whole mess come to term. She hoped that now the friendships that were lost could be repaired, but that wasn’t the case.

On the train ride back, Gaara was nowhere to be found, and Konan had sat with Hinata and Sakura, instead of with Pain and the rest of Akatsuki. Sakura did have a great time with the two girls, but she couldn’t help but feel as if something was not quite right.

“I’ll speak to father about having you over, Sakura. I really hope we can make it work.” Hinata had been hoping to have her friend over for summer for a while, and she hoped that her father might be more amenable this year.

“I’ll be moving into my own place this summer too, and when that happens, I’d love to have you both over.” Konan smiled at the two girls. Sakura couldn’t be happier, for she too had grown much closer to the two over the year, even thinking of them as sisters.

When she finally finished saying her goodbyes and crossed over to the muggle world, she saw Gaara, waiting for his brother with a frown. As she made her way to her family, she almost thought of stopping to speak to him, but his expression deterred her, and she moved past him with a heavy heart.

“Ah Sakura, how was the second half of your year?” Her mother asked on the way to the car.

“Oh mom. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I based a lot of this on the somber mood of the Chamber of Secrets, and also on the Chunin Exam Arc, where characters grew up a little and faced hardship. I had a hard time deciding on what to make Sakura's greatest fear, and you'll see that experience will come back to haunt her.


	3. The Third Year

On her third summer, Sakura was very busy. She spent almost a month with her grandmother, who was a bit shocked to find out about magic, but she still supported her granddaughter the best she could. When she returned, she also visited Hinata several times, finally getting to know the family she had heard so much about. Her father wasn’t very pleasant to be around, but he never stayed for long, leaving the two girls to their devices. Neji frequently joined them, and Sakura grew closer to the man. He didn’t speak much, but when he did he was usually kind and polite, and the three had many discussions over the Wizarding World. Sakura learned that he was interested in Magical Law, and wanted to diminish the gap between traditional wizarding families and muggleborns.

Exploring the Hyuuga household had been a mind-blowing experience, with so many enchanted objects that Sakura never knew existed. She noticed that much like Muggles, wizards did try to automate everything, from brooms, to teapots, causing much amusement during the first time Sakura tried to serve tea.

Even though Konan had claimed to be moving to a new apartment on her own as soon as she turned 17, she didn’t, but the two girls did meet, when Konan’s parents invited Sakura’s for a dinner, the two muggle couples bonding through the experience of having witches for daughters. In this way, Sakura spent her summer in a tranquil happiness that comes from having a solid and stable life, without knowing that in that same summer a dangerous wizard had escaped from Azkaban, something that would eventually come to impact her.

Sakura first noticed something was different when she crossed into platform 9 and ¾. There were somber looking wizards standing around, examining everyone suspiciously, and kids weren’t running around wildly. She had arrived particularly early, for her parents couldn’t drop her off, and in her nervousness of using the Night Bus for the first time, she overestimated the amount of time necessary. As she boarded the train, having handed off her trunk and her new owl, Katsuyu, Sakura found a nice compartment for herself and her friends, watching the platform through the window curiously. Families spoke in lower tones, sticking to themselves, instead of mingling around, and some people exchanged weird glares at each other.

The first of her circle to arrive were the Sabaku siblings, and Sakura noticed that both looked particularly upset over something. She wanted to lower the window and call out to them, but memories of the last year, and how Gaara wouldn’t look her in the eye anymore stopped her. She just watched both of them turn in their belongings and board the train, expectation swirling in her belly, hoping that one of them would stop by to say hello. She had left the door open, but she didn’t see them walk by, and tried to stop the wave of disappointment that passed through her.

Shortly after Hinata’s family arrived, and that brought a smile on her face. She watched them stand together for a while longer, until finally Hinata and Neji headed towards the train. Both Hyuugas ended up joining Sakura, much to her surprise, since usually Neji would leave Hinata to seek his own friends, but he stayed, opening a book on a language Sakura had never seen before. Sakura turned her attention to Hinata, who was telling her that Hanabi was quite upset to have missed Sakura on the platform. Soon enough the train began to fill up, several people passing by and occasionally stopping for a quick chat. Kisame stayed the longest, being amused that Neji looked upset to see the blue haired man call the two girls Squirt and Mute. Sakura was certain that his eyebrow twitched when Hidan came in yelling obscenities. Sakura still looked around for Sasori and Gaara, but saw no sign of them.

Shikamaru joined them only a few minutes before the train left, muttering all sorts of things that Sakura didn’t understand, but he greeted both girls warmly, before challenging Neji to a match of chess. Sakura and Hinata spent much of their trip chatting and watching Neji lose spectacularly to Shikamaru in several different ways, before eventually his own pieces gave up on being destroyed. Eventually the conversation moved to the topic of classes, and Sakura was happy to find out that Shikamaru had signed up for Arithmancy and Muggle Studies. Hinata had joined Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. Neji, who also took Arithmancy claimed it was his favorite subject, and Sakura admitted to having already read the textbook for the year.

It was in this pleasant manner that they made it to Hogwarts, the four teens sharing a carriage. On their way to the castle, they saw ghastly looking creatures flying around in the sky, and when one passed over them, Sakura felt nauseous.

“What _are_ those?” She asked, noticing everyone around her looked a little pale.

“Dementors. Nasty creatures, yet necessary.” Neji answered, a dark look on his face.

“Why are they necessary?” Sakura asked, feeling repulsed by them.

“Orochimaru of course.” Shikamaru answered, using the patient tone he took whenever he tried to explain some facet of the wizarding world to Sakura. Before she could ask what an Orochimaru was, they arrived at the castle, and were quickly ushered into the Great Hall by Asuma, their charms professor.

Shikamaru, Neji and Sakura took their usual seats at the table, by Sasori and Konan, who looked a little worse for wear. Sakura noticed their forced smiles, and wondered if they had an encounter with a Dementor too. Before she had the opportunity to ask what an Orochimaru was, the first years were brought in by Tsunade, and one look at her Professor made her forget about the strange name, for Tsunade looked incredibly upset, and Sakura wondered what could have caused that.

After all thirty first years had been sorted, the most she had even seen in her time at Hogwarts, the Headmaster got up to do his speech. He too mentioned Orochimaru, and Sakura could tell that he was a person, he was evil, and everyone seemed afraid of him. He also warned to stay away from the Dementors, and Sakura did not need to be told twice. Everything in her body had repulsed her from those creatures and she absolutely didn’t want anything to do with them. That night, safely tucked into her new bed, in the lonely room for third year girls, Sakura wondered why she hadn’t seen Gaara in the Slytherin table.

Her first week of classes was almost as exciting as her first week in her first year. With two new classes to take and professors starting to up the ante in terms of complexity, Sakura would frequently head to sleep exhausted, much to her pleasure. That Saturday, she visited the owlery with Hinata, giving her new owl several treats before sending her off with a letter to her mother. After, they took the time to take a walk around the grounds, enjoying the crisp fall weather before the cold overtook, making walks outside a chore.

“Konan please.”

The two girls quickly ducked behind a bench when they spotted Pain and Konan by the lake, having an obviously private conversation. Sakura knew they were not yet in good terms from last year, when Pain chose his ambition over her. What she didn’t understand is why they hadn’t patched things up yet, knowing that her housemate was still very much in love with the Slytherin man.

“I told you, I’m still thinking. Don’t bother me until I’ve decided.” Konan walked off in a hurry, and after she no longer could be seen, Pain threw a spell at the lake in anger, water exploding everywhere, and the two hidden girls exchanged a wary glance.

They turned around the way they came, avoiding the enraged male, taking another route to the castle, where they were to meet up with Shikamaru in the library. He was waiting for them with Neji, who sat with them to do his homework, and Sakura yet again wondered why he suddenly started to spend time with them, instead of the two boysterous Gryffindors he spent most of his time with. Sakura didn’t mind, he was a good study companion, silent, polite and he had helped her with a particularly difficult Arithmancy question. Shikamaru actually seemed puzzled by his homework for once, and Sakura giggled to see that he was studying the telephone, something any muggle kid knew how to operate. She also noticed that Naruto skulked around the library, but he didn’t last long in there, leaving almost as soon as he arrived.

That day, Sakura didn’t sleep well, and was forced to take one of the medications her mother had given her. What she hadn’t told anyone was that her experience with the Boggart last year was still occasionally giving her nightmares, waking up in a cold sweat dreaming of her friends being attacked by an unknown force, being powerless to stop it. Her mother had given her some sleeping aids and told her to talk to the Head Nurse, but Sakura was too ashamed to do that, since last year she had told everyone that she was perfectly fine. That Sunday night she also didn’t have much sleep and it was a weary Sakura that entered the Potions classroom that Monday.

She took her usual spot, not really caring whoever paired up with her, and it was a silent Gaara that took the seat next to her. One look at him made Sakura concerned. His eyes were usually rimmed by heavy bags of lack of sleep, but on that day, they looked even worse than usual, marking his eyes black.

“Gaara… Are you okay?” Sakura asked, filled with concern for the teen that was once her friend. He nodded and turned his attention to Kakashi, who had just entered the room. They were working on an Antidote to common poisons, and Sakura was upset to see that their work wasn’t successful in the end.

“Don’t worry everyone. I didn’t expect any of you to get it right on the first try.” Their professor’s kind words didn’t make any of them feel any better, and it was a gloomy Sakura that headed to lunch.

As the weeks passed, things weren’t getting any better. Classes were getting harder, her sleep was becoming more difficult, and even the easy friendship she had with the Akatsuki members was becoming strained. Konan seemed to be eternally busy, between NEWTs and Head Prefect, Sasori was never in the Ravenclaw common room anymore, without Sasori, she never saw Deidara, and she didn’t have much opportunity to see the others. It was a gloomy Sakura that was spending an afternoon with Tsunade, working on using a spell to repair skin tissue.

“Sakura. You’ve done a great job today, come here.” Tsunade called her over a look of concern in her face. The girl walked to her mentor’s desk, avoiding the pair of sharp blue eyes that seemed to be reading her mind. After a few moments of silence Tsunade sighed.

“Your Hogsmeade permission slip. Did your parents sign it? I’ll be collecting them next week, and if you’d like, I can sign yours.” Tsunade approached the girl kindly, and Sakura felt some of her barriers melt.

“That’s not… My parents did sign it. I’m looking forward to visiting it the next weekend.” Sakura tried to smile, but instead a yawn came out. A loud bang outside startled both of them and Tsunade sighed, knowing that some student had done something stupid that would require her attention. She let the bright girl go, and watched her shuffle away in concern, trying to understand why her bright and cheerful pupil was looking so tired.

The Saturday of the first Hogsmeade visit was exciting enough to lift Sakura’s spirits, and it was a happy pinkette that met her friends in the Ravenclaw table for breakfast. She joined Konan and Hinata, who were her two partners for the trip, Konan having promised the younger girls a tour of the best spots, ending in a cup of warm butterbeer. After eating, the three followed the masses of students that were heading to the gates, eager to make the trek to the small wizarding village outside the castle. Sakura noticed the flying dementors around the castle, and hoped that none of them decided to come close. They made it past the gate without much hassle and soon found themselves walking around a quaint village covered in fresh snow.

They first visited Honeyduke’s, where Sakura bought several of her favorite sweets, thinking guiltily about how her mother would be upset if she knew how many of them she was purchasing. Konan had an even bigger parcel than Sakura’s and the three girls left the shop talking about the differences between Muggle candy and Magical ones. She spotted Neji across the street from them, and threw him a smile, but he averted his eyes. After that they went to Zonko’s where they found Hidan, Deidara and Kisame, huddled around a corner that was labeled “Dangerous - Adults only.”. Sakura steered clear of them, looking around with great interest, even purchasing a few things, intent on taking them apart to see what made them tick. Hinata didn’t buy anything, much too kind to play a prank on anyone. When they exited the shop, Sakura saw Neji across the street again, and she was suspicious.

“Hinata. Is your cousin following us?” Sakura asked, glancing at the long-haired man that was trying way too hard to look inconspicuous. Hinata sighed and looked at him sadly.

“Yes. Father has asked him to take care of my safety due to concerns about Orochimaru. Neji… He might have taken it a little too seriously.”

“In that case he might as well join us.”

Konan walked to him, Sakura and Hinata in tow, and told him that if he wanted to follow them around, he might as well join them so he wouldn’t look creepy. He looked mortified, but he did agree, walking a few steps behind them, however, to allow them the privacy to talk about what they wanted.

Their last stop was at Madam Rosmerta’s Three Broomsticks, for some butterbeer. The place was completely full, and it took a solid glare from Konan to shoo some fourth years from a table so they could sit. Hinata protested, but gave in easily, for everyone had been a little tired of walking. Neji eventually spotted his friends at a nearby table, and with much encouragement from everyone, joined them, keeping a watchful eye on the three girls. As they neared the end of their first mugs, Konan finally opened up about Pain.

She knew that he was ambitious, and his end goal was to become Minister of Magic. Konan thought she would be okay with it, and be capable of supporting him no matter what. However, her experiences last year showed her that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to always be second place to his grand scheme, and that she was still unsure of it, wanting to take the time to consider it for herself.

“My mother always said that being married to father was difficult, but she loved him very much.” Hinata mused. Sakura knew that the girl’s mother wasn’t alive anymore, but it would indeed take a special someone to love Hyuuga Hiashi.

“I don’t know if I could do it. I want to be a medic like my parents. But it’s hard, they’re both so busy, they don’t have much time together…” Sakura sighed, thinking of her own family. Konan eyed her curiously.

“How do they deal with it?”

“Mom says that it makes her treasure the moments she has with him even more. Sometimes when they’re together it’s even disgusting how they are.” Sakura thought to her trip to Italy with her parents, watching them hold hands, kiss and giggle like a newly-wed couple.

Each girl turned inwards, thinking about their families, and what they wished for their future partners. Eventually they switched the subject around, turning to gossip, wondering when Prof. Asuma would make a move on Prof. Kurenai, and listening to Konan complain about balancing Head Prefect duties and NEWTs. Eventually the afternoon passed, and they headed back to Hogwarts. Neji had left with his friends earlier, and the three girls walked together, enjoying the cold breeze. The way to the castle was practically empty of other students, and they hurried to the gate, wanting to escape the elements. As they neared it, a cold chill hung in the air, and Sakura felt an empty sickness settle on her stomach. A Dementor stood there, floating idly. Instinctively they all stopped, but the creature had sensed them, and it floated towards them.

Sakura wanted to run, but her legs were made of lead. She tried to see under its hood, but there was only darkness. As it approached, she felt herself being drained, and screams started to echo in her ears. Beside her, Hinata whimpered and Konan pulled out her wand, calling out a spell. A white wisp flew outwards, but quickly dissipated. The screaming grew progressively louder, and Sakura closed her eyes, covering her ears, but it didn’t help, and she could see ghosts of long dead corpses behind her eyes. She fell to her knees, despair consuming her and she could vaguely hear Hinata crying by her side.

“Expecto…” Konan’s own voice had lost all strength, the creature sapping her of everything she had.

“Expecto Patronum!” a loud familiar voice boomed around them, and Sakura opened her eyes to see a giant white toad in front of her, before darkness overtook them.

When Sakura next opened her eyes, the white ceiling of the Medical Wing loomed over here, and she let out a sigh of relief. She sat up slowly, and saw Shizune fussing over someone two beds over, complaining.

“Dementors, really… The Ministry is absolutely crazy. I cannot believe Minato Uzumaki would allow something like that.”

Next to her, a pale Hinata was still sleeping and Shizune turned around, surprised to see Sakura awake. The person that she was fussing over had been Konan, and Sakura felt a weight that was over her heart lift.

“We’re all alive…”

“Of course, even if just barely. If Jiraya hadn’t been there I shudder to think what might have happened. Here, drink this. It will make you feel better.” Shizune handed Sakura a steaming cup of cocoa, and the door slammed open, almost making her drop the warm drink. Pain marched to Konan’s side, taking over the stool by her bedside, gently encasing her hand in his.

“Mr. Nagato! You’re not allowed in here yet!” Shizune complained, but he fixed her with a glare that silenced her. Sakura took a sip of her drink and felt some warmth return to her body. By the time she had finished her cocoa, Hinata was halfway through hers, but Konan hadn’t woken up yet.Sakura expressed her concern, and Shizune told her that the worse someone’s memories were, the worse it was when a Dementor attacked them. Sakura and Hinata were reluctant to leave, but Shizune shooed them away. Pain was still by Konan’s side, and the two girls entrusted their friend to him.

They silently walked together, until they parted ways, each girl heading to their own common room. When Sakura arrived at Ravenclaw’s she was surprised to see it empty, but a quick glance at her watch told her it was dinner time. She admired her watch even more, remembering her first Christmas at Hogwarts, the happy memory helping the sinking feeling in the pit of her belly. Sakura only looked up when she felt someone sit next to her, and was surprised to see Sasori.

He hesitantly placed a hand on her head, slowly stroking her hair. Sakura couldn’t control herself anymore and cried. He pulled her closer, lending his shoulder, and the young girl sobbed until her head hurt. Eventually her tears stopped, and he handed her a large chocolate bar, which she eagerly opened.

“Thank you.” Sakura croaked, throat sore from all the tears.

“Anytime.”

More Ravenclaw students started to fill the common room, and Sakura retreated to her room, not wanting to show anyone else her moment of weakness.

After that event however, her nightmares became even worse, Sakura occasionally waking up with a scream strangling her. She felt even worse than before, and it took every ounce of courage to bring herself to fake her smiles. The only silver lining of the awful encounter had been the rekindling of Pain and Konan’s relationship, the couple now seen together everywhere. Konan didn’t share whatever the Dementor did to her, and Sakura didn’t want to ask, but it had shown her that Pain did value her life enough to lose Slytherin a grand total of 50 points, for assaulting the Head Nurse when she tried to remove him from his post. He was serving detention for the rest of the month, but Konan decided to give him another chance.

It was in this fashion that exams happened and the semester ended. Sakura was staying for the holidays, except this time she wasn’t as cheerful as before, and without classes and exams to hide behind, her distinct moroseness became even more apparent to all those around her. The only person that looked even worse than her was Gaara, who seemed to have developed permanent black circles around his eyes. Even though several people tried to figure out what was going on with everyone’s favorite pinkette, Sakura avoided and deflected all questions directed to her, until almost everyone stopped trying.

Unfortunately, despite how much she tried to hide it, everything was revealed in a rather silly accident. Hidan, Kakuzu, Deidara and Kisame, all too bored with nothing to do, thought that staking money on duels was the best way to spend their time. The headmaster, knowing that they would likely do it regardless of anyone’s thoughts on the matter, decided to at least have one Professor supervise the whole affair to avoid anyone getting hurt. In that particular day, Tsunade was the supervisor, much to her immense displeasure. Hidan was fighting Kakuzu that particular day, and Hidan was known to prefer his big, flashy and extremely destructive spells. And it just so happened that in the chaos that resulted when one of his spells missed the target and hit a nearby suit of armor, the container in which Sakura placed her pills flew out of her pocket as she dove out of the way of the pieces of metal flying everywhere, to land on Deidara’s feet, who immediately picked it up and asked out loud, catching everyone’s attention.

“Sakura, what are these, yeah?”

The girl tried to get to him, but Tsunade was faster. With one spell those flew to her hand, and she stared at Sakura with a face that told everyone she was not happy.

“This duel is over. Sakura, with me.”

Sakura followed her House head until they were in the older woman’s office, and she placed the box of pills on her desk. Sakura stood there, head hung and ready to be chastised.

“Sakura. Look at me.”

She raised her head, ready to find anger and disappointment, but saw only disarming concern and care. It broke the girl, who fell into tears, spilling her entire tale to the woman she had come to deeply respect. Halfway through her story, Tsunade had left her spot behind the desk to hug the girl, muffling the rest of her tale. After Sakura finished, Tsunade took her to the Medical Wing, and started rummaging through one of the cabinets.

“Won’t Shizune mind?” Sakura asked, to receive a scoff from Tsunade. She knew that the older woman had been a very famous and talented Healer in the past, and that something happened to make her quit being a Healer and take up the position of Transfiguration Professor, but Sakura still thought that going through someone else’s things was a little disrespectful.

“Aha! Here it is.”

Tsunade removed a bright red potion from the cabinet, pouring it into a goblet for Sakura.

“What is this?”

“Something of my own creation. It will help you, trust me. I made it for people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, to help them with their traumatic memories. A modified version of the Forgetfulness Potion.”

“I don’t… I don’t want to lose my memory...”

“You won’t. It just makes the memory less important, fuzzier, like the unimportant childhood memories you rarely recall. Some people think completely erasing the thing is better, but I think our memories are part of who you are. If you ever want to think about it you will, but it won’t be as traumatic as it is now. That should also stop the nightmares you’ve been having.”

That night, Sakura slept peacefully, a smile on her face.

At Tsunade’s behest she spent much of her break catching up on sleep, and by the time the break was over, Sakura was back to her usual cheerful self, much to everyone’s relief. With her renewed energy, Sakura spent the last few days of her break trying to find Gaara, determined to talk to him. It took recruiting Deidara’s help to get Sasori to cough up the location of his younger brother for her to find him.

He was in the Astronomy tower, sitting by a window, in a room hidden behind a painting she never knew existed. He was surprised to see her there, and Sakura attacked him with a frank candor that even Gaara couldn’t resist.

“I’ve been having… problems sleeping.”

“I know just the thing for that.”

In the end, Sakura had to bind Gaara with a curse and levitate him to Tsunade’s office, who laughed at the whole situation. Sakura only let him go after he promised to talk about what was bothering him, and she left the office, to give Gaara the privacy she knew he needed. A few days later, Gaara was back to joining everyone for snowball fights, and it was during the chaos of one of those fights that he thanked her for being so annoying, which prompted a face full of snow, which hid his smile.

Even though her third year had started miserably, Sakura was now perfectly content, happy to focus on her classes and spend time with her friends. Gaara now joined their study sessions in the library and Sasori was back to being a fixture at the Ravenclaw common room. He had approached her one night, when most of their housemates had gone to sleep to thank her for not giving up on his little brother, but he did not explain what sort of trauma had happened to her, and Sakura did not ask.

Soon the snow started to melt, and everything was going about wonderfully, until Naruto Uzumaki approached her and Hinata one night, as they were making their way to the Hufflepuff common room. Sakura had been too tired to notice, but the blonde had been observing them for most of the year, and had only gathered the courage to approach them once he saw that Sakura had gone back to spending most of her time smiling.

“I need your help…”

Naruto Uzumaki, son of the Minister of Magic, most popular boy around, and object of fixation of most girls had terrible grades, and nobody knew it.

“Please please please please please please!”

Sakura eyed him warily, remembering the bullying she had suffered from his friends in her first year.

“We’re not going to do your homework for you.”

“That’s not what I wanted! I… I really want to be Minister of Magic like my dad! But he told me that he wasn’t just going to give me a job at the Ministry, I had to earn it like he did, but studying is just so hard! There’s all that reading and writing and I’m really bad at it! I’m really good at the practical stuff, I swear!”

Sakura did know he was good at the practical spells, usually being the first or second to perfectly execute whatever spell they were working on in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

“I don’t think there’s any p-problem…” Hinata said and Sakura turned to her, surprised. It wasn’t like her friend to speak up like that, and the fact that she was avoiding eye contact from both parties told her that it had taken a lot for her to speak up like that. Sakura sighed.

“Fine. But just because Hinata wants it. And she’s going to be the one to take care of you.”

Naruto thanked them both enthusiastically, hugging them both before running off, promising to meet them at the library on their usual times. Sakura still wasn’t sure of the whole situation, but one look at Hinata’s beet red face told her everything she needed to know.

“Merlin’s beard. You _like_ him.”

To Sakura’s surprise, neither Gaara nor Shikamaru seemed to mind the new addition to their group. Apparently Naruto was friends with both of them, much to Sakura’s surprise. The person who seemed most bothered by it all had been Neji, who now spent most of his time glaring at the blonde boy, who took up most of Hinata’s attention. Naruto hadn’t been joking when he said that reading and writing were hard for him. He didn’t understand any of the theory their professors taught them. What he didn’t have in brains, he made up for in charisma, and even Sakura, who wasn’t too interested in being friendly with him, found herself enjoying the boy.

Obviously such a change would not go by unnoticed, and it didn’t take long for Sasuke, flanked by his posse, to make his appearance in the library one day, disturbing their work.

“Dobe. What are you doing with these nerds?”

“I’m studying.”

“Why? Just ask your father for that Ministry job you wanted.”

“My dad is not like yours, teme. Besides, I actually like everyone here.”

Sasuke scoffed.

“Pfft. Don’t waste your time on the mudblood nerd and her disgraced friend.”

At that moment, chaos reigned in the usually peaceful library. In the blink of an eye, Gaara and Naruto were upon Sasuke, foregoing the wands and going straight to the fists. The two boys who were with him raised their wands, but Shikamaru and Neji were faster, hitting them before they could do anything. Iruka, the librarian showed up, and Ino screamed. Sakura and Hinata could do nothing but stare in shock.

It was because of this that Sakura found herself standing besides Hinata and Ino, trying to explain what had happened.

“...a-and then he called Sakura a m-mudblood.” Hinata finished her tale to the professors present. Sakura looked around to see Headmaster Sarutobi, Tsunade, Jiraya and Kakashi all make a face as if they had swallowed a lemon.

“Is this true?” the Headmaster asked Sakura and Ino, both nodding in agreement.

“Very well. You can all go now. Since none of you were part of this, you will not get any detention.” Kakashi showed them to the door. As soon as they were outside, Ino looked at Sakura with a strange expression and walked away, not saying anything.

“That was weird.”

In the end, all the boys involved got detention, leaving Sakura and Hinata to study alone for the rest of the week. The news spread like wildfire, and Sakura found everyone getting inflamed. She only came to truly understand what was going on when she found herself walking to Study of Ancient Runes with Itachi.

“I apologize for my foolish little brother.”

“What for?” Sakura still didn’t understand why everyone seemed so upset with Sasuke, and Itachi fixed her with a curious stare.

“Sakura, mudblood is one of the most offensive terms one could use to refer to a muggleborn such as yourself. It is… incredibly frowned upon.” Itachi avoided looking at her face, instead fixing his gaze on his fingernails.

“I see. And let me guess, people like me are are hated by stuck up Pure Blood wizards like your brother.” Sakura grumbled. She swore Itachi’s lips tilted upwards in a smirk before returning to their usual position.

“Something like that.”

To Sakura’s surprise, most of Gryffindor didn’t stand with Sasuke, and only Ino and the two second years called Juugo and Suigetsu were still seen around him. She heard he was the target of rather nasty pranks, and Sakura had a very good idea of who was targeting him. As spring progressed and final exams rapidly approached, she started to get busier with studying. With more classes and the added burden of helping Naruto, the teen forgot all about her birthday. It took her by surprise when on a Sunday in March, Hinata took her to an empty classroom, to see all her friends gathered together for a party, filled with food looted from the kitchens, including a chocolate flavored cake.

The entirety of Akatsuki was there, alongside Neji, Hinata, Shikamaru, Gaara and Naruto, who lost no time in charming everyone, even the usually reclusive Pain, who developed a weird fondness for the boy who shared his goal of leading the Wizarding World. They all sang Happy Birthday off-tone, and Sakura couldn’t have been happier. Her heart clenched at the thought that next year, most of these people wouldn’t be here anymore, and Sakura made sure to pay special attention to all of them. She allowed Kisame to gush about his new broom, listened to Hidan's curse-filled stories, managed to get Itachi to crack a smirk at her jokes, and felt particularly touched to receive a gift from Kakuzu. Her favorite present was a custom chess set from Deidara and Sasori, who worked together to make it, with pieces that blew themselves up when they died and perfectly repaired themselves into the mahogany figures delicately painted with cherry blossoms. Konan and Pain gave her the join gift of a book on very advanced and slightly forbidden healing spells that Pain promised would not implicate her. She raised an eyebrow, surprised that a man aspiring to be Minister of Magic had such underground connections, but was happy to take it.

From her birthday to the exams it was the blink of an eye, and soon Sakura found herself standing anxiously with Hinata waiting for Naruto to receive his report card. The two girls had almost perfect grades, with Hinata receiving an Exceeds Expectations on Divination, the girl’s weakest subject. He ran to them with a huge grin, and both girls released a sigh of relief.

“I did it! I did it!” He yelled as loud as he could, and Kakashi deducted 5 points from Gryffindor for his loudness.

It was in bright spirits that Sakura left Hogwarts for another vacation, eager to return next year.

“So yeah, Sakura, you definitely have to go to the Quidditch World Cup! It’s going to be the absolute best!”


	4. The Fourth Year

Sakura’s summer found her sleeping in a comfortable bed, in a tent that had three bedrooms, a couple bathrooms, a large living area and a kitchen that had way too many bottles of sake. The girl had four open letters by her pillow, and she smiled in her sleep.

 

_Hey hey Sakura!_

_It’s me, Naruto! I asked Dad if we could take you to the Quidditch World Cup with us, but he said it wouldn’t be proper, since he never met your parents and we only became friends last year. Either way just come anyways, and when you do you can find us at camp 1, site 13. Stop by!_

_\--Naruto_   
  


_ Hello Sakura, _

_ How have you been? I asked father yet again to take you to the World Cup with us, but he said it would not be proper for him to escort someone that wasn’t from the family. I really tried my best, but he was rather decided. To be completely honest, you're not missing much anyways, since you’re not fond of Quidditch. I’ll make sure to take pictures of the most interesting things and buy you a souvenir. I would love it if you could visit us again after the event, for I miss you. If you do happen to come by the World Cup, we’re located at camp 1, site 8. _

_ Hinata Hyuuga _   
  


_ Dear Sakura, _

_ I hope your summer has been great so far. Pain managed to get a job at the Ministry and I am working at Flourish and Botts, in the recovery of old rare books. It’s quite a fascinating job, and I don’t understand why the previous worker quit complaining about too many paper cuts, since I haven’t gotten any yet. Pain got us two tickets for the Quidditch World Cup and I would love to see you there, if you go yourself. I’d love to take you with us, but we’re still paying for the new apartment in London, so money is a bit of a concern. If you manage to come, you can find us at camp 34, site 8. _

_ Konan _

 

_ Sakura, _

_ I’ll be visiting you in the 15th of July at 8pm, please make sure your parents are home. _

_ Tsunade Senju _

_ Professor of Transfiguration _

_ Hogwarts School of Magic _

 

Tsunade’s visit had been to ask Sakura’s parents for permission to take the girl to the Quidditch World Cup, which she counted as a valuable experience for the girl, and something to help her become more familiar with the Wizarding world. It wasn’t very proper for a professor to show such favoritism among her pupils, but Tsunade didn’t care and Sakura’s parents allowed her to go. Now she was sharing a tent with her mentor, sleeping happily having arrived that night.

Seeing the magnitude of the event had been a shock to Sakura, who never imagined so many different kinds of wizards could exist in the same place, without attracting Muggle attention. Tsunade spent a lot of time fielding the excited questions from the girl, explaining the incredible task of coordinating such a large scale event. They had passed many kinds of tents on their way to their spot, from crystal castles to wooden cottages, and Sakura wasn’t disappointed when Tsunade opened their own, a circular red house with a symbol at the top that Tsunade explained belonged to her clan, the Senju.

Telling the girl about one clan made her ask about the others, and they spent the rest of the night discussing the most traditional Wizarding families, many of them sporting names she was familiar with, such as Senju, Uchiha, Hyuuga, Nara, Aburame, Yamanaka, among others. From there, Sakura couldn’t help but ask:

“If it’s possible that a magical child may be born from Muggles, can a non-magical child be born from pure bloods?”

Tsunade had smiled at the girl then, and Sakura felt as if she had somehow passed an unknown test.

“Of course. Most clans will hide those kids, however. Considering them to be failures…”

“Professor… Have you ever heard of genetics?”

Sakura was surprised to find out that her Transfiguration professor was indeed very familiar with several Muggle medicine concepts, having taken the time to study them when she was younger.

“Do you think… It could be possible, theoretically, to try and find out what exactly causes someone to be magical?” Sakura asked, possibilities filtering through her mind.

“I think that it would be possible, but you’ll find that most Wizard clans would absolutely hate that. Their entire existence hinges on the fact that a match between two wizards has an almost guaranteed chance to result in a magical child. They think it makes them better, more pure. I think that it’s about damn time someone found some absolute proof so that we can all throw these medieval ideas in the trash.” Tsunade explained, and she was happy to see a small fire light up in Sakura’s eyes.

“Professor, I think you’re absolutely right.”

Sakura was sent to bed shortly after their discussion, and she fell asleep almost instantly, looking forward to searching for her friends tomorrow.

The next day found Sakura up bright and early, but the scattered bottles of sake told her that her guardian would be sleeping for a while longer, and Sakura left a note, explaining that she was going to look for her friends located in camp 1, and headed out. The trek to camp one wasn’t long, for it was next to camp two, and Sakura quickly found herself inside the main lane of camp 1. She noticed that all the tents were bigger and flashier than those in camp 2, some even coming with gardens, fountains and one even had a gazebo at the center of a hedge maze. She wondered if there was some sort of competition on who had the flashiest tent. She stopped by one that seemed Oriental style, looking like a Japanese temple, complete with koi pond and Sakura trees in full bloom. 

The girl stopped to admire the blooms she was named after and noticed her hair had the same color as the flowers. If only I could be as pretty as those flowers, she thought. Lost in her reverie, the petal-haired girl didn’t notice the two figures approaching her.

“What are you doing here?” A familiar voice that Sakura preferred to avoid broke her peace, and Sakura turned to see Sasuke accompanied by an older woman that looked very similar to him.

“Sasuke, who is this?”

“She’s a classmate, from school. Her name is Sakura.” He sounded like he was slightly constipated, and Sakura looked curiously at the weird expression on his face.

“Lovely to meet you dear. I am Mikoto, Sasuke’s mom. You’re as adorable as the flowers you’re named after.” Sasuke’s mother graced Sakura with an incredibly sweet smile, and the girl wondered how the son turned out to be so sour.

“Thank you. I apologize for intruding, it was my first time seeing them. In person, I mean. I’ve seen them in pictures, of course.” Sakura blushed, trying to look polite and mature.

“You’re free to come see them at any time. They’ll be in bloom until we leave. Would you like some tea?” Mikoto smiled at the girl, finding her incredibly cute.

“Thank you, but I am searching for the Hyuuga clan. I am supposed to meet my friend there.” Sakura bowed respectfully, having read somewhere that Japanese people traditionally bowed to others.

“Oh they’re not far. You’ve about a five minute walk away. Sasuke you should escort her.”

Sakura declined the offer and left as fast as she could, trying hard to not look impolite. As soon as they couldn’t see her, she let out a sigh of relief, thinking that the Uchiha family was nothing but trouble. Mikoto Uchiha had been right, and she soon spotted Hinata and her father sitting with an old man by a small palace that looked like it was made out of marble. Sakura was about to run over to greet them, when someone stopped them.

“Not yet, Sakura. That old man is Danzo, and he’s a really mean old coot. He’s very anti-Muggles too, so having you around would be bad for Hinata.” 

Naruto had been the one to stop her, with a firm hand and a kind smile. Sakura was glad to see him, and they exchanged a quick hug.

“I’m really glad Auntie Tsunade was able to bring you, it’d be a shame if you missed all of this.” He blinded her with the brightness of his grin, and received a slap on the arm from Sakura.

“Even if she is your Aunt, you shouldn’t call her that! She’s your teacher too!” 

“Eh, we’re not at school so it doesn’t matter. C’mon, you gotta meet mom and dad.”

He dragged her past the Hyuuga campsite, and Sakura glanced at Hinata, who returned the look apologetically. Naruto nodded at all of them, but continued on his path. Hiashi only acknowledged Naruto, pretending that Sakura wasn’t even there, which did hurt the girl a little. The blonde boy didn’t stop until they reached a smaller, humbler campsite, made only of a small brick cottage with a hideously orange roof. He walked inside confidently, and Sakura hesitated a bit before following him, wondering if it was okay to enter the house of the Minister of Magic so casually.

“Mom! Dad! I brought Sakura over!” She heard Naruto yelling and followed him to the living room, where a couple was sitting on a couch. Sakura felt bad for intruding on their moment, but before she could make an apology and leave, the two adults got up to greet her, and Sakura found herself meeting the Minister of Magic and his wife.

Minato Uzumaki was very much where Naruto got his looks from, with wild blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a charming smile. He greeted her warmly, shaking her hand firmly and introducing her to his wife, Kushina Uzumaki. Naruto’s mother had long, bright red hair and deep blue eyes, with a incredibly kind smile that assuaged Sakura’s nervousness. She invited the girl to sit down and offered her snacks, which flew from the kitchen at a wave of her wand.

“Naruto tells us that his improvement on grades is due to you.” She threw a glare at her sheepish son, but offered Sakura a cookie.

“Ah I helped, but Hinata Hyuuga did most of the work, really.” Sakura blushed, knowing she didn’t deserve that much credit.

“Oh, you’re hanging around Hinata again?” Minato asked his son, who nodded excitedly, making Sakura curious about what had transpired between her two friends. 

“And I hear you’re Tsunade’s new protege, she brought you with her?”

“She was incredibly kind, I never imagined that such a thing was even possible, really. She told me about the protection spells that circle this place, it must have been amazing to coordinate everyone. I was also very impressed at the stadium itself, must have taken a while to build, no?” Sakura blushed and stopped herself. She didn’t think that being overly excited over something like that was proper behavior. To her surprise the Minister laughed heartily and made several jokes on how his wife had given him a hard time for all the extra hours he had to put in. 

After they were done with the snacks, Naruto offered to take Sakura back to Hinata’s camp, and as he quickly made a stop in his room, the two adults fixed her with a serious stare.

“Be careful with getting too close to the Hyuuga clan. They’re known for being particularly elitist, and in a gathering like this, they’ll be looking to keep appearances.” 

With Minato’s warning ringing in her head, Sakura made her way to the Hyuuga campsite with Naruto by her side, chattering her ears away, talking about the different teams that were playing that night, but Sakura didn’t pay any attention. When they arrived, they saw more old wizards who looked at Naruto and Sakura with distaste. Hiashi whispered something to his daughter, who got up to meet them before they got too close.

“I… I w-will have to ask b-both of you to p-please l-leave…” Hinata said in a low tone, staring at her feet. Naruto looked particularly upset, but Sakura could see in her friend’s eyes that she was hurting more than they were.

“Hinata, I understand. I’ll see you at school, okay.” Sakura gave her a small smile, which only seemed to make the other girl feel worse, and with tears in her eyes she walked away.

“I thought she had changed… But I see Hinata is still as Hyuuga as ever…” Naruto glared at a nearby rock, hurt lacing his words and Sakura smacked him lightly.

“It’s her family Naruto. Try to think a little. It’s obvious she doesn’t share their views, but family is family and there’s nothing we can do about it.” Sakura said and started to walk off. She didn’t see the somewhat surprised way Naruto looked at her retreating back.

From there they visited Pain and Konan, who were happy to welcome the duo to their rather modest tent. Pain tried yet again to recruit Naruto as his future vice-Minister, and the blonde claimed that he’d be Minister one day. From there they started to debate politics, leaving Konan and Sakura to talk about other things.

Konan filled in Sakura about what the rest of Akatsuki were doing with their lives. Hidan joined a Quidditch team, Kakuzu was now at Gringotts, Itachi was working at the Magical Law Enforcement Office, Sasori was also at the Ministry, working in the Department of Secrets and Deidara started a fireworks business, looking to find a small shop in Diagon Alley. Kisame was as of yet officially unemployed, but there was something weird in the way Konan said that. Sakura was glad to hear from everyone and said she’d miss them all very much. Konan made her promise to invite Hinata over for more sleepovers, now that she wasn’t around to occasionally crash Sakura’s empty dorm room.

“I think I’ll miss Sasori’s presence in the common room the most. There was a weird sense of normal to just see him there all the time.” Sakura pondered. She thought about how now her friends were scattered all around, with Hinata in Hufflepuff, Gaara in Slytherin and Naruto in Gryffindor. 

“You know, there’s a room, in the seventh floor, on the left corridor, opposite of that hideous tapestry. It’s where we used to meet up, when we had to scheme and we didn’t want to use a specific common room. If you really need a place to go, a place to hang out, it will be just that.”

Sakura didn’t understand Konan’s cryptic words, for she had never seen any room in that area of the castle, but she understood that there were things about the castle that were unknown to her, like how Deidara seemed to have an endless supply of things from Zonko’s, or how Kisame knew how to get his hands on butterbeer whenever he wanted. From what she had seen today, it seemed entirely possible to fit an entire house in a small tent, so a hidden room really wasn’t too out of the realm of possibility.

The shadows began to elongate as the sun went down, prompting Naruto and Sakura to return to their tents, for the game would begin in but a few hours. The lead up to the game had been so exciting that everyone was disappointed when the match was such a one-sided affair. With such a disappointment in the air, most wizards packed up silently and left to their homes, spread across the world.

“I’m sorry the game was such a disappointment, Sakura.” Tsunade mentioned, as they were preparing to take a portkey to London.

“I never came here to see the game anyways, so I’m not too upset.”

Sakura stayed with Tsunade for another day, taking the opportunity to purchase what she needed for her fourth year in Hogwarts. She was thankful to have the Vice-Headmaster around, for an item in her letter had her quite puzzled.

“What is this, dress robes for a formal occasion?”

Tsunade smiled, as they entered Madame Malkin’s to procure those robes.

“Oh yes, there’s a special affair happening this year in Hogwarts, and you’re going to want to look pretty for it. Come, I think you’ll look absolutely gorgeous in red.”

Sakura spent the rest of the afternoon modelling for the two older witches, who couldn’t seem to agree on colour, shape or size, until eventually they pulled out a maroon dress, with shoulderless sheer sleeves, a lace top and a silky mermaid bottom, that made Sakura look much curvier than she actually was, and complimented her unusually colored hair. 

“That’s perfect.” Both witches finally agreed, much to Sakura’s joy, for she was already in love with it. Madam Malkin packaged the dress neatly, with a special spell to prevent it from wrinkling and a long parchment detailing its special care. Tsunade paid for it before Sakura could protest, claiming that she could consider it a late birthday gift. Sakura felt even more indebted towards the woman she considered a second mother and promised herself to find something that she could give to the inspirational woman in front of her.

The rest of Sakura’s summer passed by slowly, without much news from her friends, and the girl spent much of her time reading her textbooks, getting excited about the new things she would learn that year.

It was only after the Hogwarts Express had taken off, that Hinata joined Sakura, Shikamaru, Gaara and Naruto at their compartment, blushing and being incapable of looking any of them in the eye.

“M-my father has advised against me spending time with you, Sakura.”

Sakura sighed, having already guessed that something like that had happened. She expected Hinata to leave, but the girl stubbornly took the seat next to her, pushing aside a disgruntled Shikamaru, and looked at Sakura, clear determination in her eyes.

“I have decided to go against his wishes. I hope we’ll be able to enjoy a happy year together.”

Everyone looked at Hinata in great surprise, not expecting said behavior from the timid girl, but nobody was as excited as Naruto, who loudly whooped, earning a blow to the head from Gaara, to reduce his boisterousness. From there, the discussion turned to the Yule Ball, which everyone but Gaara seemed to know all about.

“What is it even for?” he grumbled, displeased to be outside of the loop.

“It’s supposed to mark a celebration of the end of the Great Wizarding War. On that night, there are no houses, and all students are equal, and should forge bonds of friendship.” Sakura intoned, repeating Tsunade’s words.

“You’re supposed to have a date… So troublesome.” 

“A… date. With a girl?” Gaara asked, fear jarring his usually stoic expression.

“Of course! Who are you planning on asking?” Naruto said cheerfully.

“Temari.”

“Wait. Isn’t she that 6th year, from Gryffindor?” Gaara asked, eyeing Shikamaru suspiciously. Sakura giggled, knowing that Shikamaru had eyes for the sharp-looking girl.

“I have a plan. What about you?” Shikamaru returned the question to Gaara, a calculating smirk in his features.

“I just heard of this stupid nonsense. I’m not even going.” 

“I’m fairly sure it’s mandatory…” Hinata piped in.

“I’m not getting a date.”

Gaara’s hopes were crushed that same night, when the Headmaster announced the Yule Ball would take place Christmas Night, attendance was mandatory, and there were enough boys and girls for everyone to find a date. Sakura couldn’t see the ginger teen from where she sat, but she was sure he would be scowling fiercely.

The first weeks of class kept Sakura much too busy to worry about dates and balls, and she had another problem in her mind. Accepting Hinata into the Ravenclaw common room had been easy enough, but when she first brought Gaara and Naruto along, she received scowls and stares, and eventually Neji warned her that one person was fine, but Gaara and Naruto were too much for Ravenclaw’s sensitivities. While they did retain their tradition of studying in the library, it was not a suitable place to spend time chatting, since Iruka the librarian, had no problems about kicking out whoever disturbed the peaceful atmosphere.

It was in this way that Sakura asked Gaara to meet up with her on the left corridor on the seventh floor, to find the mysterious room Konan had told her about.

“You mean the Room of Requirement?” He asked, as soon as Sakura told him about it.

“You know of it?”

“Yeah. My brother showed it to me.” Gaara shrugged, and Sakura walked up close, eagerly waiting to see what would happen. The boy closed his eyes, and stood there silently, giving Sakura a chance to notice something she hadn’t seen before. In bright red, hidden behind his messy hair, was a tattoo, with a Japanese character Sakura couldn’t recognize. She was certain that she had never seen that before, and took a step closer, her feet practically touching his. Her hand was reaching upwards, intent on parting his messy hair so she could get a better look, but he opened his eyes, halting her movement. She stared into his eyes, noticing they were still rimmed by the ghosts of old sleepless nights, but they were the most striking shade of green, like molten jade,swirling with unknown emotions that he wouldn’t show.

He was the first to break eye contact, turning to a door with a cough, facing away and hiding his blush behind his hand. Sakura stood still for a second longer, until her attention snapped to the door that hadn’t been there a few seconds before. Entering the room, she found it pleasantly furnished, a long table in the center, and a smattering of couches, armchairs and pillows, perfect for relaxing after a long day of classes. She spotted a tall dark chair with green seating, a love seat identical to the one in the Ravenclaw common room, a bright red armchair and several bean bags that were much alike the ones she spotted in the Hufflepuff common room. When Gaara joined her inside, she turned to him with a bright smile.

“This is perfect!”

From there, the Room of Requirement became their group’s favorite haunt, and it didn’t take long for everyone to be able to summon it at will. As time passed, the room changed too, with bookshelves appearing one time after Sakura complained about not having a specific book, a chess table for Shikamaru, and even some cushions for Naruto to practice his spellwork on. Eventually even the library became obsolete, their study sessions now relocating to the room, allowing for heated discussion on certain topics.

In this happy manner, Sakura’s time at Hogwarts flew the fastest it ever had, until snow began to permanently cover the ground, and the Ball became the only thing on everyone’s mind. It was in one night such as that, that the topic of dates was yet again discussed.

“Shikamaru, did you even manage to ask Temari out?” Naruto started one night, after everyone had been exhausted by a lengthy Transfiguration homework.

“Yes.”

“And?”

“Yes. I have my troublesome date.” Shikamaru grumbled, sinking further into the beanbag he was occupying. Naruto stared at him thoughtfully for one second, but before he could open his mouth, he was cut off: “No. I will not help you find a date.”

The blonde sighed. He left his spot on the table and sunk into the armchair pitifully. Gaara was already taking up the other armchair, so Hinata and Sakura settled on the love seat.

“Finding a date is hard. First you have to find a girl, then it has to be a nice girl, then you have to ask her out, and hope she says yes somehow. You two have it easy, you don’t have to find dates since you’re both girls...” Naruto trailed off, staring at Hinata and Sakura with a surprised expression. 

“Yes, imbecile. We’re girls. Did it take you this long to find that out?” Sakura crossed her arms.

“Oh, Sakura you can be my date, and Hinata can go with-”

“No.” Sakura didn’t rejected Naruto immediately.

“But why not?” He whined.

“I will not be someone’s date because they’re lazy. I’ll only accept it if someone genuinely wants to take  _ me  _ for a date, not as some idiots last resort.” Sakura crossed her arms and glared at Naruto who pouted. 

“I… I can be y-your date, N-Naruto…” Hinata stuttered, blushing wildly.

“Really? You’re the best, Hinata!”

Sakura and Shikamaru shook their heads, astounded at the blonde’s denseness. Sakura was so preoccupied with  Naruto and Hinata’s obliviousness, that she herself didn’t notice a red-head eyeing her with curious interest.

It wasn’t as if Sakura hadn’t gotten requests from guys, it was simply that she didn’t want to spend her time with someone she didn’t know. So far she hadn’t gotten a single request from someone she would enjoy spending time with, and she was rapidly reconsidering her pickiness. It was only a few weeks until the dreaded affair, and she still didn’t have anyone to go with, causing Sakura to worry every now and then. It was in one of those moods that Gaara found her alone in the owlery, after having sent a letter to her mother.

“Sakura.” He called her out, and she was startled.

“Oh, Gaara. You scared me.”

“You were spacing out.”

She watched him attach a letter to one of the school’s owls in silence, and wondered if the letter was addressed to Sasori. She hadn’t heard from him since school started, and found herself missing him. She walked with Gaara in silence, appreciating how the snow had turned the castle grounds into a sea of pure white. The silence of the Saturday morning made her feel like she and Gaara were the only two people in the world.

“Sakura.”

She answered with a distracted hum, and stopped when she felt his gloved hand on her wrist. Sakura turned her attention to him, focusing on his eyes, which she had found to be particularly expressive. She could detect that he was nervous over something, and there was something else that she couldn’t put her finger on.

“Sakura. I’d like you to go to the ball with me.”

She raised her eyebrows in surprise, not expecting such straightforwardness from the boy that had complained more than once about dates. Silence stretched out between them, and he continued on.

“You’re my friend, and I enjoy spending time with you a lot, and in a party about friendships, there’s no one more adequate.”

Sakura watched his pale face tint pink, and could feel her own responding. Whether it was the cold, or her heart that started to beat a little bit faster than its usual pace, she didn’t know, but right there, in that private moment, among the white, Sakura could feel herself change in a way she hadn’t before.

“Okay.” She answered, still a little surprised, but ultimately happy.

He nodded, and let go of her wrist, resuming their path to the castle. Sakura stood there in silence for a breath longer, before quickly taking over her place at his side.

The days before the ball were full. All the students decided to stay for the Winter Holidays, and several girls hounded the library looking for beauty spells and hair potions. Sakura and Hinata had been lucky enough to one day find the Room of Requirement full of books on beauty for witches, and even a cauldron and several ingredients they’d need for it. They spent Christmas Eve locked in there, making a potion for a “perfect, translucent skin” and practicing their several beauty spells. 

“I don’t know if I want the hair shine or the hair smooth one…”   
  
“Why not both?”

Hinata slept over, and for the first time, Sakura didn’t wake up on Christmas Day alone. They opened their gifts, wearing the hilariously ugly sweaters Naruto gifted them. Hinata’s was orange and green, and Sakura’s a unflattering shade of off-white. Sakura’s gift batch that year was the largest one yet, although her favorite came from Konan. It was a beautiful white rose clasp, that matched whatever Sakura was wearing. She arranged it on her hair, and the flower immediately switched to the same off-white of her sweater.

_ It’s for you to wear at the ball tonight! Make sure to take pictures! _

The two girls met the boys for lunch at the Hufflepuff table, and excused themselves from the epic snowman building competition Naruto was planning.

“You need four hours to get ready? Why?” He whined, but was ignored nonetheless. 

In Sakura’s opinion, the four hours were well-spent. When she stood in front of the mirror, finally ready, she felt the prettiest she had ever been. Her skin was pure white silk, all imperfections gone for the night, her pink hair shined under the light, perfectly organized in a side bun, Konan’s flower decorating it nicely, resting just below her ear. The dress contrasted nicely against her pale skin, highlighting her unusually colored eyes and hair, and Sakura was thankful for Tsunade’s gift. 

Hinata, standing next to Sakura also looked great, in a lavender dress, with a halter top and a flowing skirt that fluttered as she moved. It had a bare back, and arms, and Sakura wondered if the girl wasn’t going to get cold. Her hair was down, but it had a silky smooth finish to it, making it a curtain that flowed even more elegantly than her skirt. She wore golden bracelets and earrings that twinkled as she moved. They smiled at each other and walked downstairs, to the common room, to see most people had already headed out. Shikamaru was still there, however, struggling with his cufflinks.

“So troublesome…” He complained and Sakura giggled, drawing his attention. They could see his jaw hit the floor, a clear difference from his usually grouchy demeanor.

“You two… Is this why the Room of Requirement was locked up yesterday?”

“Of course!” Sakura smirked at him.

“At least help me with these…”

Hinata helped Shikamaru with his green cufflinks and the three of them made their way to the stairs that led to the foyer, where it seemed most people had agreed to meet up with their dates. Shikamaru split off from them before they hit the stairs, complaining that Temari would be upset if he showed up with other pretty girls. Sakura made him promise to save her a dance before he left, which he responded with a flat stare, much to her amusement. She knew that he’d eventually give in if she annoyed him enough for it.

The two girls made their way down the stairs, scanning the crowd for Naruto and Gaara, but what they hadn’t realized is that they were seen by their dates before they spotted them.

This moment was described to her later in Gaara’s own words:

_ “It was as if I didn’t know my world was in black and white, and then suddenly there was this explosion of color, hitting me harder than a dragon’s tail, with you at the center of it, and I knew then that you were just…  **everything** _ .”

It didn’t take long for the two girls to spot the smitten boys, and when they did reach them, they had the pleasure of seeing Naruto stutter and Gaara blush wildly, cheeks competing with the color of his hair. After another second, they regained their composure, and offering their partner’s their arms, the four of them walked into the Great Hall.

The Great Hall too had changed, a wide open area in the center, where couples were already dancing, and several scattered tables around. The professors’ table was replaced with a small stage where instruments played a soft opera. Naruto immediately took Hinata to the dance floor, leaving Sakura and Gaara to find a table. They found an empty one by a window, and Sakura pointed out that it was snowing outside. She didn’t receive a response and when she looked at Gaara, she found him staring at her intently, that same unidentifiable expression swirling in his jade eyes.

“Gaara?”

“You look really beautiful. Magical, like you’re a fairy tale princess come to life, pink hair and all.”

This time it was Sakura’s turn to blush, and she averted her eyes from his face, choosing to face the table.

“You look really nice as well.” And it was quite true, she thought. Gaara wasn’t tall and lanky like Shikamaru, being a bit shorter than Naruto as well, but what he didn’t have in height, he made up for in muscle, being the goalkeeper of Slytherin’s Quidditch team. She liked his build, being just tall enough to be taller than her, but not enough where she had to look up.

“Thanks.” He muttered, as embarrassed as she was. They stood in awkward silence for a moment longer, until Sakura wondered about the empty glasses on the table.

“I wonder how do we get drinks. I don’t see any waiters…” 

“Probably… Water!” Gaara called out to his cup, which was instantly filled with crystal clear water. Sakura smiled at herself. Really, she thought, after four years of this she should know better.

Their awkwardness gone, they began to talk about the situation, both of them surprised to see Shikamaru leading a smirking blonde around, and Naruto enthusiastically spinning Hinata. They watched their friends for a while longer and Sakura was amazed at how they danced so perfectly together. She knew Hinata probably would have had dancing lessons considering her father, but Naruto was the really big surprise.

“Ah Sakura, there you are! I knew that dress was perfect for you! I see you came with the brat, you better not hurt my beloved pupil or you’ll spend the rest of your days as part of my teacup collection!” Tsunade joined them smiling evilly and looking like she had clearly been ordering something alcoholic.

“I’d never intentionally hurt her.” Gaara responded briskly upset with the suggestion, and took Sakura’s hand, dragging her to the dance floor. Sakura blushed as they stopped and immediately felt nervous, for she had never danced before.

“I’m sorry if I step on your toes.” She apologized, as Gaara placed his hand on her waist, and took one of her hands with his free one.

“I’ll lead.”

Sakura barely had the time to place her own hand on his shoulder before he took off, leading her smoothly, and Sakura was surprised at his proficiency. They took a full turn around the room, and he spun her, leaving Sakura breathless. She expected Gaara to quickly give up on the dancing, but he kept going, and soon Sakura found herself no longer stumbling, and eventually she stopped thinking about the dancing and started to actually have fun.

“I can see now why people dance all night!” She exclaimed smiling brightly at him.

“It avoids awkward small talk with other people at the party.” He deadpanned and Sakura laughed at him, garnering the attention of the couples surrounding them.

“Sometimes Gaara, you say the funniest things.”

“I’m a regular comedian.”

Sakura laughed again,and even he broke a smirk at it. The two danced until Sakura’s stamina finally gave way, and she proclaimed she absolutely needed a place to sit. They returned to their still empty table, and sat down, Sakura out of breath. Gaara gave her a glass of water which she gulped greedily and sat next to her, nursing his own cup of clear liquid.

“I’m sad this doesn’t happen every year…” She sighed, enjoying the magical experience.

“It’d be way too troublesome if it did.” Gaara complained.

Sakura smiled at him, knowing that he didn’t find this as troublesome as he claimed, and pulled out a camera from the purse she had left at the table.

“Konan asked for pictures, so come here.”

She pulled him close, her arm around his and snapped a picture before he could reject it. He glared at her, but she didn’t see any malicious intent in his expressive eyes.

“I’ll send a copy to your brother too. I’m sure he’ll love it.” Sakura chuckled when he rolled his eyes grumbling something beneath his breath and she knew then, that was her best night at Hogwarts.

Almost as soon as it started it was over, and a very tired Sakura was slowly walking to the Ravenclaw common room, yawning every few steps. She had danced even more with Gaara, and she was sure she would feel her legs burning for the rest of the week. The man in question was escorting her to her common room, her arm circling his, leaning on him for support. He felt very warm to her, and Sakura knew her heart was beating wildly fast.

They reached their destination entirely too fast for her liking, and Sakura stood in front of the door, facing him, wanting to prolong the moment even more, knowing that the next day they’d go back to being Potions partners and friends, instead of Gaara and Sakura, boy and girl, dates.

“Thanks for walking me back.”

Gaara nodded to her and turned to walk away, and Sakura reached out to him, grabbing his wrist in a similar way as he had tone to her before. She took a step closer to him, and found herself staring at that same unfamiliar expression in his eyes, soft yet intense, laden with undisclosed thoughts.

“I really had fun today.” She whispered to him, and gathering all her courage pressed her lips to his cheek, lingering for a second before pulling away. He stared at her as she made a hasty escape into the Ravenclaw common room, completely smitten.

Sakura fell sick the day after the party, a common cold that allowed her to avoid Gaara until the safety of their daily class-filled routine allowed her to evade the weird feeling she got in the pit of her stomach whenever she saw him. He didn’t behave any differently than normal, and with time, her own nervousness was erased, returning to her normal behavior around him. Soon enough, the butterflies in her belly almost ceased to exist, and it was only a small quickening of the her heartbeat that remained as an aftereffect of that night.

The pictures she took arrived, multiple copies per picture so she could distribute them to the interested parties. She saved the one of her and Gaara carefully, framing it and placing it beside her bed, watching herself pull a surprised Gaara closer. She occasionally poked the Gaara in the picture, who frowned to her adorably every time she did, making both herself and her picture self smile.

After all the excitement in the first half of the year, the second half passed without much fanfare, and Sakura was soon headed back to London via Hogwarts Express, much to her own disappointment.

“This time, for sure mom and dad will let you visit me, Sakura!” Naruto exclaimed. Sakura smiled at him, but told her she already had plans for the summer. That summer, she was going to America with her parents, for they had been given an incredible job opportunity there.

“Does this mean you won’t return next year?” Gaara asked, his voice taking a weird tone. Sakura had anticipated this question, and already had an eager answer.

“Professor Tsunade has agreed to be my guardian until I am finished with my Hogwarts education, so yes, I will be looking forward to another year with all of you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We see the very beginnings of romance happening between our protagonists, and it will only start to escalate from here. There wasn't much school in this chapter, but I think that's alright, since the focus of this chapter was more about moving forward. Next chapter we'll have OWLs, Prefects and hormones stirring up some problems.


	5. The Fifth Year

Sakura looked at the Hogwarts express, feeling so happy to see it again. That summer had been completely crazy, with her parents moving to a different continent, having to deal with the paperwork involved in making Tsunade her guardian and all of this without any magic. Her seventeenth birthday couldn't come fast enough, Sakura grumbled. She had changed a lot in the past few months, finally hitting her growth spurt, forcing her to buy new robes and sending a distressed letter to Hinata, asking how witches dealt with their time of the month. Her response had included a small book that turned out to be very helpful and Sakura was yet again forced to contemplate how awful it was to have all these magical means to her disposition, while millions of Muggle women couldn't access them. 

Adjusting her new Prefect Badge, she made her way to the front of the train, to the exclusive Prefect-only car. There she met Shikamaru, Hinata and Ino. She eyed the blonde warily, remembering the few times they had clashed in previous years, but the girl seemed different, more muted. She nodded to Sakura politely and stood by herself. Sakura didn't know what that meant, but was happy she wouldn't have to deal with potential opposition. 

Their first orders by Head Prefect Neji were to patrol the train, and break up any potential fights between students. They walked off in pairs, Sakura eagerly taking Hinata as they walked off, sharing stories of their summer. They made it to the back of the train and finally found the people they were looking for. Opening the door with a smile, they saw Naruto and Gaara, engaged in a heated Quidditch debate. 

The months had been kind to both boys, they had both grown at least several inches, and there was something in their manner of movement and voice that made Sakura reconsider their position as boys, thinking they were more aptly described as men. 

“Hey it's our favorite Prefects! Here to keep us out of trouble?” Naruto grinned at them. Sakura scoffed and dropped herself by Gaara, completely exhausted.

“You try keeping these little punks out of trouble. I swear we weren't as disrespectful when we were their age.” Sakura complained. 

“You're right, we were worse.” Gaara replied thoughtfully. Everyone snickered, remembering their first time in the Hogwarts Express. 

“It's okay Gaara, we have two Prefects on our side now, we can get away with anything.” Naruto whispered. Sakura shook her head, knowing that the blonde boy didn't go looking for trouble on purpose, it just found him. 

“I'm just worried for my schedule. Between OWLs and this, we'll be very busy.” Hinata sighed. Sakura agreed with her. Healers needed to have at least 5 OWLs, although Sakura still wished to pass on all the classes she was taking.

“What are you two planning on doing after Hogwarts?” Sakura asked, eyeing the two young men curiously. 

“Auror.” They both replied instantly. 

“That's a job that traditionally requires good scores…” Hinata looked at Naruto with concern. Sakura wasn't too worried about Gaara knowing he was one of the smartest students in their year, and she was sure Naruto would ace the practical exams, but the theoretical ones would be unreliable. 

Sakura looked at her watch and warned Hinata they should return to their posts, and bidding farewell to their two friends, they resumed their duties until the arrival of the train. 

“We're not even at the school and I'm already exhausted.” Sakura complained, as she and the other Prefects were the last to leave. 

“This is so troublesome…” Shikamaru sighed from somewhere to her right, and they walked towards one of the last carriages to the castle. The three of them entered, but before they could close the door, Ino stood by it. 

“Can I… Can I join? The other ones are all full.”

Hinata nodded and Sakura found herself sitting in front of Ino, who seemed incapable of looking her in the eye. The pinkette knew there was something there, but was too tired to press the subject, deciding to confront the other girl some other time. There was silence in the carriage, mostly due to Ino’s unexpected presence. The four of them split off upon entering the Great Hall, each heading to their respective tables. Sakura watched the sorting with interest, knowing that she’d be responsible for some of these young students. Eventually she recognized a familiar name being called out:

“Hyuuga Hanabi.”

Sakura watched the young girl intently, watching the proud set of her shoulders and the determined look in her face. She hoped the young girl would join her sister, but was surprised when it wasn’t Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, but Gryffindor as her house. To her right side, Sakura felt Neji stiffen and the girl wondered about the familial repercussions of the two Hyuuga heiresses not being in Ravenclaw. Once everyone was sorted and fed, Sakura and Shikamaru herded the first years to the Ravenclaw common room. Sakura pointed out several places of interest on the way there, answering a few questions whenever they were asked. Eventually once they arrived, she headed to her room, intent on falling asleep immediately, but found a note waiting for her, requesting her presence in the Prefect’s Room on the Third floor. 

She dragged herself and Shikamaru there, sending curses at Neji in her head for making them have this meeting. They were the last to arrive, finding the other Prefects already gathered. Sakura took her place next to Hinata and Kiba, the two from Hufflepuff. In front of her was Ino and some boy she didn’t know, with purple tattoos on his face. Next to them was Shino and a girl with red hair and glasses and the ugliest haircut Sakura had ever seen. Neji closed the circle.

“I want to establish Prefect Partners for the year, whenever we’re required to patrol. I think it will be preferable to separate friends and people from the same house, to prevent favoritism. Here’s the list I have assigned, along with the days and times of patrol.” Neji passed around a sheet in his delicate calligraphy. When Hinata passed it to her, Sakura looked through it quickly, and stopped at the name written next to hers: Yamanaka Ino. They were scheduled to patrol Wednesday night, from dinner to curfew.

She handed the sheet to Shikamaru and looked at Ino, who was avoiding looking at her. Sakura didn’t pay much attention to Neji’s additional instructions, for she was too tired. He eventually released them all, and Sakura made her way to the common room. She was surprised to see Shikamaru break the silence.

“Sakura, I noticed you’re paired with Ino. I know that in the past the two of you haven’t seen eye to eye…” - he avoided the raised eyebrow directed at him and continued, looking at the ceiling - “Ino and I, we’re sort of childhood friends. Our families are quite close. She’s very troublesome, but she’s not a bad person and I just thought… If you give her a chance, you might like her…” He ran his hand through his hair and Sakura was surprised. It wasn’t like him to interfere like this.

“I’ll keep it in mind…”

Sakura did keep in mind, and that Wednesday she approached Ino in their Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

“Hey, uh… I know we have patrol together tonight, and I thought we could meet up outside the Great Hall after dinner.” Sakura casually said, trying to not feel embarrassed by the stares of those around them.

“Um, yeah, sure.”

They were interrupted by Jiraya, who told them to stop chatting and start working. Sakura turned to the foam balls they were practicing on, and remained by Ino’s side, in a show of good will.

That night, dinner passed by quickly, and much of Sakura’s attention was directed towards the blonde sitting across the hall from her. As soon as the blonde had exited the Great Hall, Sakura rose to follow her, startling her dinner companions. She apologized and left quickly, dinner half-eaten.

Sakura met Ino outside, who seemed surprised to see the pink-haired girl so quickly. She smiled at Sakura, who couldn’t help but smile back. Before they set off, however, Uchiha Sasuke walked past them, with the female Prefect from Slytherin on his arm. He sent them a condescending look, which made Sakura want to punch him. On her side, Ino flipped her long hair backwards and took Sakura’s arm, walking away from Sasuke confidently.

“Don’t even bother. He’s not worth it.” Ino said, making sure Sasuke could hear her words. Sakura looked at her in shock, not expecting that from the girl that had been Sasuke’s shadow for years. They walked together in silence for almost an hour, until Sakura couldn’t hold her curiosity anymore and asked:

“What happened?”

Ino looked at her surprised and sighed before answering: “When he called you mudblood in the library… That’s…” The girl looked away from Sakura shamefully. “I’m very sorry for that. Would you understand it, if I told you I was a stupid girl with a crush?”

Sakura mulled over it for a few seconds and decided to be truthful.

“I don’t know if I understand being a stupid girl with a crush, since I haven’t yet really had a crush, I think… But I can appreciate being mature enough to realize you were wrong and apologize.”

Ino nodded, understanding Sakura’s message. “I don’t think I’ve ever properly introduced myself. I’m Ino, from the Yamanaka Clan. I plan to be a famous Herbologist someday, and I have to say, I love your hair, but I think you have the wrong style.”

Sakura gaped at the other girl, who took the ribbon that held her hair and with a quick spell changed its color to a burgundy red. She approached Sakura and pulled her bangs back, exposing the large forehead she had.

“That’s so much better, Forehead Girl. You should show off that big brain of yours.”

“What did you just call me, pig?”

The two girls giggled and the seed of a wonderful friendship was planted.

Sakura adopted Ino’s advice and started tying back her hair every day, surprising everyone. Hinata complimented the new style, saying she looked nice. Gaara was the one to pinpoint the reason why, claiming they could see her face better. Naruto was the first to comment on her large forehead and earned himself a tickling hex from the pinkette, causing him to writhe on the floor, giggling manically.

On the second week of classes, Tsunade scheduled times with both Sakura and Shikamaru, to talk about their future, and it was an eager Sakura that knocked on the older woman’s office on the Saturday afternoon. Upon hearing her permission to enter, she bounced in the room cheerfully.

“Good afternoon!”

“Ah Sakura, please take a seat, this will be quick.”

Sakura took the chair across from the blonde’s desk and waited for her to finish off whatever she was writing. Once her professor turned her eyes to the pinkette in front of her, they softened.

“So, OWLs. Let me guess, you’re taking all of them.” She smirked at Sakura.

“But of course!” Sakura smiled brightly. Tsunade chuckled as she pulled a form from her desk and started filling it out with Sakura’s information.

“What are your thoughts for this Christmas? I’m going to that Healer convention in Geneva, and I was wondering if you’d like to come with me. I’m your guardian now, so it won’t be seen as favoritism.” Tsunade offered, as she checked the boxes for the OWLs Sakura would take.

“Really? I’d love to!” Sakura smiled brightly in excitement.

“You won’t be able to see your friends, though.” Tsunade warned, but the girl didn’t seem to worry about it, and assured her guardian that going to a Healer convention was the best Christmas ever. Tsunade laughed.

“Since you’re here, do you want to learn that one spell to stop massive bleeding?” Tsunade offered and the two spent the rest of the afternoon practicing magic.

As Sakura walked to the Room of Requirement to meet her friends, she was struck by a thought. Hinata, Shikamaru and Naruto are all probably going home, but Gaara would likely stay. And without her around, he’d be lonely. She bit her lip, worrying about it. She saw him walking towards the Room of Requirement and called out to him, prompting him to stop and wait for her to catch up.

“Gaara what are your plans for Christmas?” Sakura asked, worried about him. He looked at her in surprise, and then averted his eyes downwards.

“My brother has invited me to visit our grandmother, Chiyo. I won’t be in Hogwarts for Christmas. I asked Naruto to invite you to his place, so you won’t be alone here.” He mumbled. Sakura was relieved and touched that he’d worry about her and hugged him in her excitement. He froze in her arms, before hesitantly returning the hug.

“Oh that’s wonderful! Tsunade invited me to spend the holidays with her, so I will be declining Naruto’s invitation, but I was worried about you being alone here. I’m happy to see that you’ll be fine.”

“Ah… Right.”

From there onward, Sakura was able to fully focus on her classes and her role as a Prefect, which started to take up almost all her time. Around Halloween she invited Ino the Room of Requirement, and soon the room changed again to accommodate for the new addition. Sakura noticed that Ino became a positive change on everyone, particularly Hinata, who was always being encouraged by the blonde to speak up more often.

Sakura thought herself perfectly happy and in balance until a Wednesday night threw a wrench in her life. Ino and Sakura were walking towards the Astronomy tower to make sure that there weren’t any kids there before curfew when they spotted a familiar red head around the corner. He was facing a girl with short brown hair, who seemed to be saying something to him. Sakura was going to call out to them, when Ino stopped her, and motioned for them to be silent, and pulled the girl closer to the wall, so they wouldn’t be spotted.

“Ugh, I can’t hear them very well…” The blonde rummaged in her pockets before pulling out a ear that seemed to be connected to a tube.

“What is  _ that _ ?”

“Extendable ear. Great for eavesdropping and really cheap at Zonko’s.”

The ear inched towards Gaara and the girl, and suddenly their voices came through as if they were standing right next to them.

“Um, I’m Matsuri from Hufflepuff and I’ve been watching you for a while… I… I wanted to say that I really like you and I’d like to go out with you…”

Sakura felt something evil explode inside her, demanding that she curse the girl away from Gaara, and Sakura couldn’t even process what Ino was saying to her. All she could think about how she absolutely did not want Gaara to date that girl.

“I appreciate your feelings, but I already like someone else.” Gaara’s smooth voice assuaged Sakura’s turmoil, but it was soon replaced by a nagging question.

“Ah, I can guess at who it is.” The girl sounded disappointed and Sakura was confused. How did this girl know who Gaara liked but she didn’t? And why did she care so much about whoever Gaara liked?

“Yeah.”

They heard footsteps, and Ino pulled a stunned Sakura into the nearby broom closet. They heard Gaara’s solid footsteps pass the door and disappear down the hallway. Ino opened the door and exited, but Sakura was still.

“Sakura… are you okay?”

“Ino… Why am I crying? Why does it hurt?”

Sakura couldn’t understand why her throat was closing up and her heart felt like it was being squished by an invisible force, causing her eyes to shed tears. The blonde hugged her, and Sakura buried her face into her friend’s shoulder, wanting to understand why she was so upset.

“Well, now you know what having a crush feels like.”

“It sucks.”

“Yep.”

That night Ino and Hinata convened in Sakura’s room and the three talked the night away about boys. Hinata shared how awful it was to see Naruto flirt with other girls, and how amazing it felt to see him smile to her. Ino talked about her experiences with Sasuke, Chouji and now Shikamaru. In the end, Sakura understood that maybe she had been crushing on Gaara since the Ball, which is why her heart had been beating so fast then, and was suffering so much now.

“So Forehead Girl, now that you know you wanna snog Gaara, what are you going to do?”

“Nothing. He likes someone, and I like him too much to risk my friendship with him.”

The two girls looked at the grim look Sakura shot her pillow and sighed.

“Are you sure? It’s not easy to do nothing…” Hinata warned, knowing from experience that it could be painful to hide one’s feelings.

Sakura quickly found out that Hinata had been very right. Behaving as if everything was normal turned out to be incredibly hard. Whenever they sat together sharing a cauldron in potions her heart kept beating so fast it was distracting, and whenever they accidentally touched, Sakura had to work hard to suppress her blush, warmth invading her. When he ate in the Slytherin table, she glared at every female around him. When they worked together in the Room of Requirement, he distracted her all the time. Once, when she was having trouble with the Stunning Spell, he walked up to her and held her hand to correct her wand movement, causing her to accidentally set her target on fire.

Fortunately, as time passed it became easier to not be so jumpy around him, and eventually Sakura almost felt normal. As the winter holidays quickly approached, classes started to become even more demanding, which helped Sakura to put her crush on Gaara out of her mind. Eventually the holidays arrived, and Sakura bit everyone a quick goodbye at the train station, before heading back to Tsunade’s office, from where they’d use floo to go to Geneva.

Sakura was incredibly excited about this opportunity to learn more about the world of healing magic, and meet other famous Healers. They arrived at their destination without much of an issue and the two women walked to the Muggle hotel the conference would take place.

“Isn’t it dangerous? To have a conference at a Muggle place? Won’t it risk them finding out?” Sakura asked as they stepped into the pretty lobby of the Muggle hotel.

“We’ve taken the necessary precautions. To them, this is just another medical conference about some obscure thing nobody is interested about. Muggles are incredibly easy to fool.” Tsunade pointed to a nearby banner that announced the CXXV European Rheumatology Research Conference. Sakura admired the polite yet boring looking banner and all the Muggles that walked by it without sparing a glance and agreed with her guardian.

The front desk clerk handed their keys with a bored look and the two headed to room 1706, which was a moderate room supplied with two single beds and a small bathroom. They deposited their small suitcases and headed downstairs, to sign in. The witch that received them had a strong french accent, and handed them both their name tags along with a handbook of rules. She looked as bored as the Muggle clerk outside, surprising Sakura, who was very excited.

She followed Tsunade around, amazed at all the different medical contraptions, potions and spell demonstrations around her. Tsunade barely looked at them, headed straight to the Research area, where she stopped at every stand to look at whatever new innovative things people were working on. Sakura had trouble understanding everything, but tried her best. The afternoon went by fast, and soon it was night time. Sakura stayed in the hotel room while Tsunade went out to party and socialize with the others, and the girl was already sleeping when the blonde returned.

The next day, Tsunade encouraged Sakura to explore on her own, and attend some of the several talks they were having. The girl chose to attend the first talk, and ended up spending practically the rest of the morning there, each speaker more interesting than the next, all of them talking about various different things, from poisons treatment to anti-aging options. Tsunade found Sakura for lunch, and the girl talked about all the different things she had seen, promising to watch all the afternoon speakers too, much to the older woman’s surprise. Sakura did end up watching all the afternoon speakers and even participated in a few, asking questions here and there. In the end of the day, she felt she had learned much about how people approached magic for healing, and concluded it wasn’t very different from the way Muggles did it, a lot of it focusing on repairing the damage that had been done.

She shared her findings with Tsunade, who agreed with her, claiming that when she was still a Healer, she tried to get the Ministry to run a education campaign, claiming that way too many wizards came to St. Mungus with very preventable injuries. Her idea wasn’t very successful and Sakura detected some bitterness. 

The last day of the conference however, was much different from the rest.

It started much as the one before it, except this time Sakura decided to spend her time familiarizing with the equipment and spells on display. She saw several antidotes and automated artifacts, some for the household and some for hospitals. She was currently reading on a potion that was supposed to “Replenish all your lost vitamins now!” when a loud explosion rocked the building, shattering the glass all around them.

Ears ringing, Sakura took cover behind a upturned table, slightly disoriented. She blinked several times and took a few calming breaths, and as soon as her ears stopped ringing, she took notice of her surroundings. Everything was a mess. Tables, chairs, bodies on the ground, and spells flying all over the place, a loud cacophony of people yelling. She dared take a look beyond her cover and noticed a group of people wearing long dark purple robes walking in through the broken windows, throwing spells all over the place. Several wizards were fighting them and Sakura felt the tentacles of fear grasp her. She started to crawl away from her table, that was a little too close to the scary wizards and tried to make her way to the speaker’s room, where she could hide. 

Eventually Sakura made it to another upturned table and stopped there, heart beating faster and faster. Until someone threw themselves next to her, causing the girl to squeal.

“Sakura! Are you alright? Are you hurt?” Tsunade grabbed the scared girl by her arms. She scanned her for injuries and found her unharmed. Beside them, the french witch with the heavy accent fell, bleeding profusely. Sakura looked at her scared. “Sakura, you know the spell, save her while I cover us.”

“But I’m just a student! I’m a minor, I can’t use magic, I’m…”

Tsunade slapped the girl firmly, and stared into her tearful green eyes.

“Sakura. You want to save people. Heal them? Then do it. This is the job, saving lives. I know you’re scared but now it’s not the time, shove that fear away, focus on your abilities and save that woman like I know you can.”

Sakura sniffled but nodded, her panic being shocked away from her by the slap. She turned to the bleeding woman, and muttered the incantation she had learned to stop the heavy bleeding. A closer analysis proved there was a large gash in her stomach from where the blood had originated, and Sakura started closing the wound, running her wand on the witches’ belly. One the wound was closed, she dragged the girl behind their small cover, and turned to Tsunade, who was furiously shooting spells from her wand.

“She’s good, she’s going to live. I saved her.”

Tsunade looked at her apprentice proudly, but then shock registered, as a spell that had just ricocheted from a nearby metal apparatus hit Sakura in the back, and the girl fell, unconscious before she hit the ground.

When Sakura regained consciousness, she found herself staring at an unfamiliar white ceiling, she a slight pain in her chest when she breathed, but other than that, she felt fine. Recalling the events previous to waking up here, she sat up, heaving. Her motions startled the person who had been sleeping on the chair next to her bed.

“Sakura! You’re awake!” Naruto smiled at her, and Sakura looked at him surprised to see him there.

“Naruto, what happened?” Sakura asked, trying to figure out how she had gone from an attack in Geneva to what looked like a hospital with Naruto.

“Well, once Orochimaru and his cronies ran away, dad arranged to have all British citizens extradited here, so we could have our own Healers look at you. Auntie Tsunade was here until yesterday. She got hit hard a few times, had a nasty bruise in one her…” - Naruto made a motion pointing to his own chest, and Sakura understood what he meant- “ya know. I think today she’s probably yelling at Sasuke’s dad for letting Orochimaru escape. She was really really worried about you. We all were. Hinata, Shikamaru, Ino, Gaara all came to visit, but since I’m the Minister’s son, I get to stay beyond hospital hours.” He grinned at her. Sakura smiled at him gratefully. Waking up alone would have been really scary. But then something else worried her.

“I used magic though… More than once, too. Am I going to be expelled from Hogwarts?” Sakura asked, biting her lip in worry. Naruto patted her shoulder and smiled reassuringly.

“Naw, dad took care of that too. Extenuating circumstances, he said. You saved that person’s life, Sakura. In that situation, nobody could even think about punishing you for doing a good thing in a terrible situation.” There was a seriousness to Naruto’s smile that made Sakura finally see how he could become a good Minister of Magic. Kind, understanding and fair, he could be someone that Sakura would follow.

At this point a kind-looking witch entered the room and introduced herself as Sakura’s healer. She did a quick check spell to confirm the girl was fine.

“There was some damage to your lungs, but we’ve given you a potion for that. It’ll take a while for your body to fully recover, so you might find yourself breathing with a little difficulty for the next week, so make sure to not over-exert yourself. You’ll be perfectly fine by the time you return to Hogwarts, sweetie so don’t worry too much.”

Sakura thanked the woman, who left with a smile and a promise for food. Naruto glanced at the nearby clock and claimed that it would be visiting hours soon, and so Sakura should prepare herself, because he had invited everyone.

Ino was the first to arrive, holding a large basket of flowers. She hugged Sakura a little too tight and cried a little, complaining all the time that she would hate to have lost her favorite prefect. Shikamaru came next, and brought a book to keep her entertained. Hinata, Neji and Hanabi came next, all bearing flowers as well. Shortly after, Gaara, Sasori, Konan, Deidara and Kisame all showed up, completely filling Sakura’s small room. Watching her family of friends surround her, made the pink haired girl incredibly happy. It didn’t take long for them all to get rather rowdy, prompting the healer to kick them all out. Ino was the only one that stayed, claiming it was her turn to look after Forehead Girl.

That evening, the adults came to visit. Tsunade and Minato walked in the room, and Sakura blushed under the proud stares both of them gave her, congratulating her on making a recovery and having saved a life. The Minister informed her that there had been an inquiry, but many witnesses had already come forward and she didn’t need to present herself in front of the Wizengamot. Sakura felt relief at that, and was grateful for it. He also said that her incident of using magic as a minor outside the school had been overlooked, but that she should still be careful.

Sakura was discharged the next day and stayed in Tsunade’s apartment in London. The blonde was still busy dealing with the aftermath of the attack, but she still checked Sakura’s recovery process every day, and Sakura noticed that at least one of the members of Akatsuki would stay with her throughout the day, until Tsunade arrived. Sakura confirmed her suspicions when Itachi stayed with her all day.

“Are you all guarding me?”

“Perhaps.”

“Did Tsunade ask for this?”

“Maybe.”

Sakura rolled her eyes at the older Uchiha. While Itachi was much better than his younger brother, his behavior did frustrate her. Fortunately for Sakura, the second week of break passed by and she was returning to Hogwarts with everyone. 

The second semester was much like the first, the only difference being Sakura herself. Her experience with the fight, showed her that the world out there was not as simple and straightforward as school was. There were evil wizards that attacked medical conferences and she couldn’t take life for granted.

“If you died today, what would be your greatest regret?” Sakura asked Hinata and Ino one day. The three girls were enjoying the privilege of the large bathtub located in the Prefect’s bathroom.

“Probably not telling Naruto how I feel.” Hinata was the first to answer. Ino took a few more seconds and added her own thoughts:

“Probably having stuck to Sasuke, and losing my chance with Shikamaru. Why do you ask?”

“I was just thinking…”

Everything had happened to fast. She didn’t have a moment to think about anything before losing consciousness. She didn’t even know what or how or when, all she knew was that she was thankful to be here.

“Was it something you were thinking before you…?” Hinata asked and Sakura sighed, watching the bubbles fly upwards.

“I was thinking that I didn’t have time to think. One second I was just checking this stranger to see if she was going to be okay, and then suddenly I’m waking up at St. Mungus and Naruto’s there. I was obviously relieved, but I didn’t have one of those near-death revelations, you know. I was just thinking what my near-death revelation would have been.” Sakura explained, and then slid further down the tub, hiding her face underwater. When she resurfaced, she was met with a somber look from Ino.

“It’s not like in the Muggle movies you know. Everything here happens just like that. Someone raises their wand at you, and if you’re not already protecting yourself, you’ll be hit and just like that you can die. There’s not much time to think in a wizard’s duel.” Ino explained.

“I can see that now.”

Sakura still didn’t stop thinking about what could have been, and one day she brought it up with Shikamaru, who seemed the best person to give advice on it. They were alone together in the Room of Requirement and having a match of chess. 

“Do you really need to have a near-death experience to have a revelation?”

Sakura looked up from her pawn that had just exploded majestically.

“What do you mean?”

Shikamaru sighed and gazed upwards, as he usually did to collect his thoughts before speaking.

“I think if you really focus and clear your mind, it will be obvious to you what you want. Although I don’t understand why you’re so obsessed with this, when it’s quite clear what you want to hear.” He faced Sakura, who was staring at him with a surprised expression before sighing and continuing on. “You’ve been avoiding dealing with whatever it is you feel about Gaara and you hoped your near-death experience would have given you the clarity you wanted without having to go through the trouble of finding it yourself.”

Sakura could feel her jaw hanging. She didn’t expect such directness from Shikamaru, who tended to avoid giving opinions on personal subjects. She turned her attention to the game, mulling over his words in her head. 

“How… How would you suggest I go about finding said clarity?”

“Personally, I rather enjoy cloud watching.”

In the end Sakura ended up at the Astronomy Tower, near midnight. She was breaking all the rules she prized, but her mother had once taken her to look at the stars and she had loved it then. She hoped something might come to her now. Sakura spent a while there, thinking about all manner of things, allowing her mind to wander, until it eventually reached a red haired man. She thought of him, and thought of what she’d like to do about him. She considered doing nothing, as was her original intent, but her mind soon thought about 5, 10 years in the future, contemplating watching him marry someone else, and Sakura felt nauseous.

“Do I really want to risk everything we have, just for a chance?” She whispered at the sky. Sakura remembered their night at the Yule Ball, having his full undivided attention, dancing with him, and her bold kiss on his cheek. She thought about always having that attention, being bolder with her kisses, she thought about red haired children with her eyes. Sakura closed her eyes and pictured herself waiting for him to come home to her, receiving his smile, being privy to his secrets, sharing her life with him and knew that it was exactly what she wanted.

“I’ll have to thank Shikamaru later.” 

Sakura’s newfound determination wasn’t worth much. OWLs were but a mere two months away, and all of their professors were driving them insane with the amount of work. Sakura could barely afford the time for herself, let alone finding time for herself and Gaara to be alone. He was applying himself to his work like she had never seen before, and she could barely find the time to spend time with him alone. Days become weeks and soon she was standing next to him, waiting to be called in for the practical portion of her Potions OWL.

“Gaara, once we’re done with all of these exams, I’d like to talk to you. Privately.”

He nodded at her, and Sakura smiled. With renewed motivation she aced all her exams, including Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was an excited Sakura that waited for Gaara by the lake, nervously adjusting the ribbon on her hair. She spotted him walking to her and waved him over. He stood by her, and Sakura suddenly felt her mouth run dry. She had practiced what she was going to say in front of the mirror, but now, watching the sun turn his hair a lighter shade of red, and his freckles shining on his face, Sakura felt her rapidly beating heart jump to her throat, making speaking rather difficult.

“Sakura. What did you want?”

“Ah.. Um.. I… Eh…”

He narrowed his eyes, and she blushed to the roots of her hair, skin clashing against her pink tresses.

“I… I… Gaara, I…”   


“Oh look, it’s the two losers.”

Sasuke’s voice interrupted Sakura. He was standing beneath the shadow of a nearby tree, a cocky smirk playing in his face.

“Sasuke, please fuck off.” Gaara growled.

“Oh no, it’s very interesting to see her struggle. Here, let me help you: Gaara, I love you and I want to have your fugly babies. Is that what you were going for, Sakura?”

She didn’t stand around to see the aftermath, running back to the castle, crying of mortification, embarrassment and sheer anger. That moment she swore she hated all Uchihas, especially Sasuke. Sakura avoided Gaara for the rest of their brief time at Hogwarts. She didn’t board the train with them, choosing to stay in Hogwarts for longer, until Tsunade also left for her vacation. Sakura didn’t think she could ever face him again after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a difficult thing to write. Wizard battles are really complicated to write and the end was a little heartbreaking, but it was also exactly what I wanted as a small cliffhanger. Please look forward to the next chapter, which should be coming out by the end of the week.


	6. The Sixth Year

Sakura trained.

She didn’t know how, but Tsunade had somehow managed to get a special permission to allow Sakura to cast spells in the safety of her apartment. And then she proceeded to drill Sakura in all kinds of magic. Non-verbal, protection, healing, offensive, transformative and countering. Tsunade was merciless, not above using the spells on her own apprentice.

“War is coming, Sakura. I know Orochimaru, I have seen the signs. Your beloved friends will be there, fighting in the front lines, and it’s your job to save them. Work harder!”

Sakura had never been so overwhelmed before. From discussing advanced magical theory, to learning powerful curses and counter-curses, Tsunade didn’t allow a single break for the entire summer. As such, Sakura’s only contact with her friends had been through the letters they had exchanged. The girl didn’t complain, it kept her busy from the thoughts that plagued her at night, before resting.

She replayed her botched confession in her head every night, and she’d hate Sasuke for being such a terrible person, and herself for not being strong enough.

“Next time, I’ll do it right.”

By the time summer was over, Tsunade declared Sakura ready to not only pass her NEWTs but even skip the mandatory year of Healer training after Hogwarts. She was proficient in all manner of spells, and was able to execute many of them nonverbally, and a few even without her wand.

It was a different Sakura that boarded the Hogwarts Express that year. Her stint through puberty was almost done, and her knowledge in her abilities as a witch lent her figure an air of confidence that highlighted her natural features. Sakura didn’t have Hinata’s high class features and delicacy, nor Ino’s voluptuous figure. Sakura was slim, her long legs being her most treasured feature, alongside her unique colors. She noticed a few stares sent her way, but her attention was focused mainly on the redhead that was standing with Naruto.

Gaara had finally grown into a handsome man, she thought. He stood taller than she did, and his broad shoulders showcased powerful muscles. His red hair was slightly shorter, but still just as messy, showcasing his tattoo to the world. Jade eyes turned to Sakura, and there was something in them beyond that usual unidentifiable feeling, this new emotion swirling in his eyes darkened them, and Sakura felt a shiver run through her spine. She smiled at him and walked into the train, knowing that now was not yet the time she was waiting for.

Sakura didn’t get a chance to talk to Gaara until their first Potions class. Neither Shikamaru nor Shino were there, leaving the two of them alone for their NEWT-level class.

“Ah, it’s just you two. Great, this is always my favorite class of the year… Today the two of you will be making Amortentia. I’m sure both of you are familiar with this, so go on, one cauldron each. I’ll be looking forward to the results…” Kakashi had a devious smirk on his face that had Sakura rolling her eyes.

She focused on getting her work done, knowing that if done wrong, Amortentia could have potentially irreversible effects, and she was very curious about what hers would smell like. Surely something related to Gaara. On the table next to her, Gaara was also focused on his own work, staring at the book in front of him thoughtfully. She saw him look at her and quickly turned her attention back to her work, blushing.

It didn’t take longer than an hour for both of them to have finished their work, two cauldrons filled with the bubbling love potion. Kakashi inspected Sakura’s first, taking a long whiff.

“Ah, parchment, antiseptics and…” - Kakashi took another whiff, Sakura and Gaara doing the same. “...hmm, this is something I have smelled before…” he frowned, trying to place where he could have potentially smelled that particular mixture of sandalwood and sand. The two males inched closer to Sakura’s cauldron, and Sakura rolled her eyes.

“It’s Gaara, professor. His smell.” She announced, trying hard to contain the warmth creeping up her cheeks. Kakashi looked at the red hair next to him and inched closer trying to catch the younger male’s scent, who seemed frozen to the spot, staring at Sakura in surprise. 

“Huh, you’re correct.” Kakashi commented. He walked towards Gaara’s potion, but before he could make any comments, the redhead had abducted the pinkette, taking her somewhere away. “Ah, young love. I should remember to collect my money from Jiraya…” He chuckled to himself, noticing how Sakura’s own lavender scent wafted from Gaara’s creation.

Sakura could only follow Gaara as he led her outside the castle, a firm grip on her wrist. She could free herself using magic, but she didn’t want to. He took them to the same spot by the lake from last year. There, he released her, facing her.

“Sakura.”

“Gaara.”

He sighed and looked at her with that intense feeling that Sakura was beginning to suspect represented what he felt for her.

“Last year, when that bastard said those awful things, I thought he was trying to attack me. I didn’t think you had called me out to confess your own feelings for me, and now I feel rather idiotic.” He ran his hand through his already messy hair, and interrupted Sakura as she tried to speak. “No, let me. Sakura I… I have loved you since our first year here. You have always been so kind to me, something I had never known before you. I never believed that you could possibly return my feelings. I had some hope after the Yule Ball, but you’ve always been so focused on your own studies that… I convinced myself it was a one time thing, that I would hold that one night as my own forever and let you fly to achieve your dreams without me. But now, you’ve given me hope as I have never felt before… Sakura do you truly love me as I do you?”

Sakura was speechless. She could only smile and nod, her heart beating faster than ever before, a incredibly warm feeling filling her up.

“Yes, Gaara. I do.”

He closed the small distance that separated them, and kissed her.

Sakura was sure her heart had exploded just like one of Deidara’s fireworks. Now that she knew what kissing Gaara felt like, she didn’t think she’d be able to ever kiss anyone else. It was simply perfect. They split for air, wide grins on their faces.

“You know, that was a really impressive confession. Much better than my own.” She giggled and he smirked cockily at her.

“I’ve been working on it for a while now.”

Sakura laughed cheerfully and took his hand. She had truly never been happier in her entire life. They walked together to the castle, smiles on their faces.

Being Gaara’s girlfriend was possibly Sakura’s favorite thing. He would always find her alone and knew all the best corners where they could snog privately, much to Sakura’s delight, for neither was particularly comfortable with heavy public displays of affection. Their friends were all ecstatic to find out they were dating, and money was exchanged around once they announced their relationship. Ino was the happiest. Now that Sakura was happily settled, she turned her attention to Hinata and Naruto.

Her first opportunity for matchmaking came with a letter from Konan.

 

_ Dear Sakura and Hinata, _

_ I am cordially inviting you both to mine and Pain’s wedding, which shall take place this Christmas. It is a small affair, just a simple party after formalizing our union through the Ministry of Magic, but we’d love it if you two were there. _

_ Obviously, you two are free to bring dates if you so wish, for a wedding party is quite the opportunity for advancing any romantic endeavours. Please let me know if you two can come and who you are bringing along. _

_ Konan and Pain. _

 

“This is great news! Hinata, you should totally invite Naruto to go with you!” Sakura exclaimed, excited for Konan and Pain.

“Ah, but my father’s annual Christmas Party…” Hinata looked at her hands, twirling her fingers anxiously.

“What do you want?” Ino asked, going straight to the point.

“I… I’d like to go to Konan’s party with N-Naruto…” The Hyuuga heiress blushed so hard, Sakura was half-afraid she’d faint.

“Then do it. You’re sixteen, almost a legal adult. What is your father going to do? It’s not like you care about all that pureblood nonsense anyways.” Ino scoffed. “Go ask Naruto. I’m sure he’d love to go with you.”

Hinata sighed and agreed. Sakura and Ino took it upon themselves to create an opportunity by keeping Shikamaru and Gaara busy during that Saturday. Sakura didn’t know what Ino did to Shikamaru, but she and Gaara enjoyed each other’s company in that hidden room behind a painting on the way to the Astronomy Tower.

“Gaara, mmph. Gaara!” Sakura tried to get his attention between his kisses. He had been trailing them from her mouth to her collarbone, distracting her from her question. Eventually she had to push him away, and he frowned at her.

“What?” He asked, slightly upset at being interrupted.

“Will you be my date for Konan’s wedding?” She asked. He blinked at her a couple times.

“I was already invited anyways…” He muttered and Sakura rolled her eyes.

“Well yes, but you’ll be going as my  _ date _ . Instead of both of us going separately.” Sakura explained, but he still looked puzzled. “Going as a date to things is something couples do. It shows their… coupleness.” That made more sense to the man, who returned to his position between his girlfriend’s legs. Sakura adjusted her sitting position on the desk to accommodate him better.

“If that’s what you want, we can do it.”

Sakura sealed the deal with a kiss and she could feel Gaara’s chest purr with contentment.

After dinner, Sakura and Ino ambushed Hinata, eager to know the results of their meddling.

“He said yes…” Hinata blushed. Ino cheered loudly, attracting stares from the nearby students. Hinata turned her attention to Ino. “What about you and Shikamaru? Are you going to do something about him?”

Ino’s energy went from maximum to null. She shook her head with a rueful smile.

“Shikamaru… He won’t… I ruined things with him. On our second year, he came to talk to me, telling me that I wasn’t being myself, that I should stop being so mean to you, Forehead Girl. I was pretty upset that the lazy uncaring boy I knew was suddenly going out of his way to defend someone else and I said some really hurtful things that I still regret…” Ino fiddled with the ends of her ponytail and Sakura and Hinata exchanged a look.

“What did you say?” Hinata asked.

“Stupid things really, like I’ll never reduce myself to the likes of you, and I have Sasuke now, and I don’t need your unwanted attentions. Things that I really regret… But I was twelve, an idiot, really. Destroying my friendships for a boy and because I was jealous that Shikamaru was hanging out with you…”Ino sighed. Sakura wrapped an arm around her friend’s shoulder.

“Have you considered apologizing?”

“Already did. He said it was all fine, he said…” - Ino wiped tears from her eyes before continuing- “he said that it’s just what he’d expect from a troublesome woman like me. I don’t really want to talk about this anymore. Let’s talk outfits. What in the world are you two going to wear?”

Ino’s story was still shuffling around in Sakura’s head, who wanted to do something for the girl that had helped her with Gaara. Eventually Sakura grew impatient and cornered him after their Arithmancy class.

“I need to talk to you about Ino.” Sakura had dragged him to a nearby empty classroom and the lazy boy sighed, taking a seat.

“What about her?”

“What’s your story with her?”

“We were childhood friends. Her dad is my dad’s best friend. We saw each other running around the pool half naked when we were three. What’s more to tell?”

Sakura analyzed the man in front of her like Tsunade had taught her to do, and she noticed that his slouching was tenser than usual, and he avoided looking her in the eye, lightly tapping a finger against his leg. Shikamaru was clearly very uncomfortable with this topic.

“You wouldn’t happen to like Ino, would you?” Sakura threw the bait and hoped he’d bite.

The reaction was instant. The tapping finger froze, he sat up slightly straighter and his eyes darted towards the door, looking like he was about to make a run for it. It confirmed her suspicions.

“Oh Merlin! You  _ do  _ like her!” 

Shikamaru gave up on the escape plan, hand going to cover his eyes, avoiding Sakura’s proud grin.

“Look, she’s a troublesome woman, okay. And have you seen her? I’m not dark and mysterious like Gaara or dashingly handsome like Naruto okay? Ino is way out of my league.” Shikamaru grumbled before getting up and heading for the door.

“You know, it’s not up to you to decide that. I think the decision on whose league she’s in is hers.” Sakura called out. He stopped for a second, acknowledging her words and then continued outwards. Deciding that she had meddled enough, Sakura went looking for her boyfriend.

Said boyfriend was on the Quidditch Field, having a joint practice with Gryffindor. Sakura spotted Hinata and joined her.

“You in a Quidditch practice? That’s a first.”

Sakura looked at the players on the field, flying around in their broomsticks. She noticed Naruto and Hinata were on Gryffindor’s team, alongside Hanabi. Gaara was the only one she knew from Slytherin’s team, and there was something about the form-fitting garments he was wearing that made Sakura understand why Hinata made a point to watch Gryffindor’s team practice. Sakura was well-familiar with Gaara’s muscles, having seen the man shirtless once, but there was a fascinating quality to how they moved and rippled as he steered his broom.

“I feel like I should come around more often…”

Hinata giggled at Sakura, knowing what had caught the girl’s attention. The practice lasted for another twenty minutes, and soon they were joining Sakura and Hinata on the trek to the castle.

“Say Gaara, how did you and Sakura get together?” Naruto asked out of the blue. The aforementioned couple looked at him curiously.

“My Amortentia potion smelled like Gaara.” Sakura claimed. 

“Ooh, that’s going to be a fun story to tell the kids.” Ino chipped in. Sakura laughed with a nod. Nobody noticed the thoughtful look Naruto was giving Hinata.

Eventually winter break arrived and with it Konan and Pain’s wedding party. Hinata and Sakura were getting ready at Tsunade’s London apartment. Ino came over as well, to help out and get herself ready to go to her family’s gathering. Sakura was the only one who could use spells, and she made sure to use that to her and her companion’s advantage, remembering how she learned them for the Yule Ball.

“This year, we’re inviting the Nara over, so I’ll probably see Shikamaru.” Ino commented. 

“You should be brave and do something.” Hinata offered and Ino looked at the girl with a smirk.

“Only if you promise to also be brave and do something.”

“S-Sure.”

With that promise in mind, the girls split up, Hinata and Sakura headed one way and Ino the other. They met Gaara and Naruto in front of Pein and Konan’s house, a small, unassuming home away from the center of London. They knocked on the door, and Konan answered, looking radiant in a beautiful white cocktail dress. 

“Oh I’ve missed you two so much!” 

She hugged Hinata and Sakura enthusiastically, and nodded at the two boys, inviting them all in. Gaara took Sakura’s hand and Naruto copied them, startling Hinata, who wasn’t expecting such a behavior from the blonde boy. They followed Konan inside to a large living room that had all of the Akatsuki.

“Squirt! Mute!” Kisame greeted them cheerfully. 

It took another fifteen minutes for Sakura and Hinata to greet everyone at the party, getting hugs, pats and other demonstrations of affection, surprising their dates.

“You’d think they’d like me more considering I’m actually your brother…” Gaara grumbled to Sasori, who smiled at his younger brother.

“They’re much nicer than you.” Naruto teased his friend, who frowned.

“It’s hard to not like Sakura and Hinata.” Sasori commented wisely.

“Don’t I know it…” Gaara mumbled, and Naruto nodded in agreement, surprising the older Sabaku.

“Did you…?” Sasori asked his younger brother, eyebrows. Gaara smirked at him and walked up to Sakura, snaking a hand around her waist, surprising everyone in the party, who started to loudly yell at it. “Good for you, little brother…” He smiled at the happy couple.

After the mess had finally calmed down, Sakura was able to tell the excited audience that she was now officially Gaara’s girlfriend. The man in question received several congratulations followed by death threats. Once everyone had said their piece, Konan gently reminded them all that this was her and Pain’s wedding, and everyone was chilled at her firm smile that promised pain and suffering.

“I uh made you some pretty fireworks, un!” Deidara pulled out a pack of fireworks and set them off, filling the room with roses that exploded in a shower of what looked like paper. Sakura expected damage to be done to the room, but after a few seconds of fluttering, the paper disappeared.

Everyone took turns presenting the newly-wedded couple with gifts and congratulations, and eventually dinner was served. They had a full meal and afterwards Konan cleaned out the plated and the long table, leaving a wide space for everyone to mingle.

Sakura noticed that Naruto had not left Hinata’s side, hovering around her almost protectively. She smiled at that, hoping that it was an indication of things to come. Soon the conversation changed to Orochimaru and the upcoming war, arresting Sakura’s attention.

“That man is crazy, un. There’s been several attacks worldwide, but especially here. Last I heard he tried to break into Gringotts, yeah!”

“He was unsuccessful. Our security is the best around. But if there was a proper war, it could lead to interesting avenues for profit.” Kakuzu noted, being a Gringotts employee himself.

“War is bad for everyone, regardless of your profits. I hope it doesn’t come to that. What is your squad doing Uchiha, that you haven’t captured him yet?” Naruto bristled, barging into the conversation.

“I assure you, we are doing our very best, but the snake has been elusive.” Itachi narrowed his eyes at the young blonde.

“There are several opportunities that could result from a conflict. A war hero, for instance, might find himself being next in line to be Minister of Magic.” Pain noted, and Naruto turned thoughtful. Sakura agreed with Pain internally. War had a way to change public perception and it could be manipulated easily.

“If it comes to that, who here plans on enlisting?” Konan asked, looking at her guests. Everyone but Itachi and Kakuzu raised their hands.

“Hah? You’re not fighting Uchiha?” Naruto glared at the man, and Itachi merely picked at his fingernails.

“As an Auror, my involvement in the war would be mandatory, therefore not requiring me to enlist. I am surprised to see Haruno and Hyuuga enlisting however? Wouldn’t you two prefer to finish your Hogwarts education?” Itachi diverted the attention away from him. Naruto looked at both girls, a surprised look in his face.

“I can save people. Someone needs to make sure all you idiots come back alive after all.” Sakura smirked, confident in her abilities. Next to her, Gaara tightened his hold on her hand, gently caressing her with his thumb.

“I can fight too…” Hinata muttered shyly. Sakura knew the girl was well-determined to stand by Naruto’s side and she wouldn’t be deterred by any conflict. Naruto looked at her with a mix of pride and protectiveness that had Sakura smiling.

“Well, I hope it doesn’t come to that.” Konan sighed and the conversation moved to more pleasant topics.

When the students returned from break, the apparating classes started. Tsunade had already taught Sakura the theory and the basics of it, so by the 5th class, the girl was already capable of apparating around perfectly. Naruto, however was struggling the most. His naturally hyperactive mind couldn’t seem to focus properly to apparate. Ino, not one to miss an opportunity, suggested that Hinata use the Room of Requirement to help Naruto out. Due to that, Sakura, Gaara, Ino and Shikamaru started to spend more time in the library, to give the other two time to practice. In the first day of spring, when they were heading to the Room of Requirement after dinner, they discovered why Naruto and Hinata hadn’t eaten with them. When Ino opened the door, they were greeted with the two teenagers locked in a passionate embrace. They hastily split, both of them sharing bright red cheeks. Hinata wobbled a bit, and eventually fainted, much to Naruto’s great shock. Sakura quickly went to check on the girl, and declared that she would be fine. With Ino’s help they relocated the girl to a couch and turned around to see Gaara and Shikamaru congratulating the blonde. Upon quizzing Naruto over how he finally realized the shy girl's feelings for him, he mentioned potions and Kakashi. Ino almost wilted, realizing Kakashi had been a better matchmaker.

With two couples around, Ino and Shikamaru naturally started to spend even more time with each other, and hoped that by the end of the year the two would also be able to share their feelings. 

What did happen at the end of the year was not a happy couple, but something much much worse.

“Sakura.” - Tsunade had called her apprentice to her office on the afternoon of her birthday. - “War is upon us.”


	7. The Seventh Year

Sakura agreed that Tsunade had done her best to prepare her for this, but even though her mentor had worked hard, no amount of training or work could have ever truly prepared her for the horrors of a Wizarding war. She had heard of Muggle wars, and their sky high death counts, injured soldiers and devastated lands. Wizarding wars were worse. Sakura worked hard at the Healers’ tent, treating injured or incapacitated soldiers, but they had yet to fill all their cots, simply because in a Wizarding war, the extremely lucky ones were injured. Everyone else died.

They’d been at this for a few months now, and upon checking her watch, Sakura realized that if things had been normal, she’d be boarding the Hogwarts Express. Instead she was heading to her tent after a grueling night shift, where two wizards had come in, both having been hit with a variety of curses that she worked hard to reverse.

Sakura trudged her way through the lines of identical tents, completely different from the time she walked through the lines of tents in the Quidditch World Cup. It seemed like a completely different time. Sakura eventually reached the one she shared with Hinata, Ino and Tenten and walked in. Due to everyone’s efforts, the inside of their temporary home was drastically different from the outside. Sakura’s undetectable extension charm had been the base of it all, allowing them all to have private rooms and bedrooms, a large living room for gatherings and a fully functional kitchen. The sun was just rising when Sakura threw herself in a comfortable armchair, courtesy of Hinata, who was extremely proficient at making incredibly comfortable furniture.

Sakura pulled out her watch, thinking of her boyfriend, who had been assigned to the front lines due to his extremely destructive power. He hadn’t made his way to the Healers’ tent, and his name wasn’t listed in the death list she had in her pocket. A benefit of being a Healer was her access to this crucial parchment that was linked to the list of dead wizards. She herself had to make additions to the list a few times, when someone died on her. Pulling it out, she glanced at the list again, lingering on a few names.

 

_ Hidan _

_ Kisame _

_ Akimichi Chouji _

_ Inuzuka Kiba _

_ Hyuuga Neji _

 

Sakura remembered the night where Neji’s name showed up. Tenten had screamed in pain, showing more emotion than Sakura knew she had. That night she discovered that the girl had been in a relationship with him. Hinata cried with her, both girls mourning the man that had so much potential. Since that night, she hadn’t seen Tenten again. The girl went to the Frontlines and hadn’t returned yet.

Eventually Ino woke up and left her room, fully dressed. The blonde girl was working with the Potions and Herbology division to engage in biological warfare. Sakura had seen the results of the blonde’s work once, when someone spilled one of the potions on themselves. She understood why her friend had bags under her eyes and had lost some of that loud brashness. It must be difficult to use one’s knowledge to make weapons to kill others.

“Just got back from your shift?” Ino asked, making herself some coffee.

“Yeah. Didn’t want to sleep yet.”

“I see.”

Their conversations had also changed since the start of the war. No more bickering and teasing. Everyone was always tense and somber. Sakura got up from her spot and headed into her bathroom, intent on cleaning herself up before trying to get sleep.

The girl got around four hours of sleep before being interrupted by one of her alarms. She had set spells to warn her whenever someone that wasn’t expected showed up. Standing in their living room, looking haggard was Uchiha Itachi. Sakura watched as the normally cool and composed Uchiha was reduced to a tired, messy human.

“Sakura. We’ve suffered a massive blow this morning.Our enemy has dragons.”

Her heart clenched, knowing what was coming next.

“This is your formal assignment to the Frontlines. Our… Our Healer support has fallen and you’re her replacement.”

Sakura felt the tears come to her eyes immediately. She didn’t need to see the death list sitting in her pocket to know what name had been added to it. Her mentor had been the Healer support for the Frontlines. Sakura took a deep breath and wiped her tears, knowing that Tsunade wouldn’t want to be grieved until this whole mess was over. She extended a trembling hand to Itachi, receiving her new orders. She read the details on the parchment, and nodded to Itachi.

“I’ll see you then.”

He left her alone, with the paper telling her to report to Frontlines at 18:00. Sakura reached into her pocket and opened her death list, taking note of all the new names that had been added to it:

 

_ Senju Tsunade _

_ Uzumaki Kushina _

_ Jiraya _

_ Sarutobi Asuma _

 

Sakura felt awful for Naruto, who had lost his mother, aunt and uncle in the span of a few hours. She hoped he wouldn’t do anything rash and get himself killed. Sakura started to pack a few belongings, knowing that she wouldn’t get her safe, comfortable tent. She tried waiting for Ino, but the blonde didn’t show up, and Sakura left a note for her. With a silent crack, Sakura apparated out of there, headed towards the Frontlines.

When she arrived it was a mess. Suits of armor fighting each other, wizards throwing spells across a wide field, dragons rampaging about, killing men and women from both sides. She appeared right next to a exhausted Shikamaru, who almost fell out of his chair when he saw her.

“Sakura, thank god you’re here. You need to go to our makeshift Healer pavilion. There’s a lot of injured and Chiyo can’t handle them all herself.” Shikamaru pointed to a spot on his table, which Sakura noticed hosted a real-time map, showing the entire battlefield. She quickly noted where the pavilion was and ran there, not wasting any time with pleasantries.

It was a short, 5-minute dash to the pavilion, a small, unassuming tent that had a wide variety of protective spells around it. Sakura was quickly granted access by the guard at the door, and stepping inside the tent, she was hit by the groans of the injured and the smell of death. Steeling herself, Sakura made it to the elder that was bossing two Healers around.

“If they can make it to the tent in the main camp, tag them yellow. If they need immediate care, tag them red, if they cannot be treated, tag them black and give them something for it. The princess’ death shouldn’t have made you forget all your training!”

Sakura approached without fear, and the old lady quickly dismissed the two shaking Healer girls, focusing her attention on Sakura.

“You must be the mini-princess. Don’t stand around waiting for my orders, you and I are equals here, get to work!” 

Sakura nodded and immediately set herself to work.

Working in the frontlines was the worst thing she had ever done in her life. The addition of dragons caused many wizards with major burns, gashes and blunt traumas, causing internal bleeding. They lost half of the men that came in, despite everyone’s best efforts. Sakura couldn’t even sleep the first night, everyone working overtime to stabilize the impact of the first attack. Eventually, the influx of patients slowed down and Sakura was finally able to rest.

“You’re the girl my grandson loves, huh.” Chiyo approached Sakura, who had been resting her head on the cool table in front of her. The girl was too tired to do much but groan. “He chose well. You did good work today.” With a kind pat on the pinkette’s head, the elder woman head out. Sakura smiled for the first time in a long while.

Too tired to move, Sakura fell asleep on the chair, using the table as a pillow. When she woke up, the sun was already high in the sky. She sat up, feeling her muscles complaining about the position she slept in. Cranking her neck to the side, to get rid of a cramp, Sakura finally saw Gaara, sleeping in the chair next to her, looking incredibly uncomfortable. Seeing him alive and well made all her previous discomfort fade away and she watched him sleep. A loud explosion nearby startled both of them, waking him up. They stared at each other for a few seconds before he pulled her close for a warm hug. Sakura closed her eyes, basking in the comforting presence of her boyfriend and couldn’t hold back the tears anymore.

She cried silently, wetting his shirt, grieving the dead and lamenting those she couldn’t save. They stayed like that for a few minutes longer, until she recollected herself.

“You should have gone to bed in the woman’s tent. They have proper beds there.” He muttered, pushing a few strands of hair off her face.

“I was too tired.”

“You need to take care of yourself. You’re the one who can save us when we get here.” 

“I know.”

“I have to go back soon. It’s almost my turn.”   


“Don’t die.”   
  
“I won’t. I promise.”

With a tender kiss he left her, and Sakura finally collected her things, heading for the women’s tent, searching for a warm shower. When she walked in, Chiyo was heading out, and the older woman told her to sleep some more after showering. Sakura was thankful and did just that. When she woke up, she saw Hinata sleeping in the cot next to hers. Sakura noticed that Hinata had lost weight and looked paler than usual.

“I hate this war…”

From there, a routine was created. Sakura and Chiyo alternated shifts at the Medical pavilion, providing emergency care to whoever needed it. When she could steal moments with her friends, she eagerly did, but it was hard to coordinate, for everyone was always exhausted. Days turned into weeks, which morphed into months, and the war kept raging on. The arrival of winter resulted in a tentative truce, the cold causing both sides to reduce their activities. However, when spring arrived, the war returned, more vicious than before.

It started to take a toll on everyone.

Gone were the small moments stolen around a campfire, gone were the infrequent times Sakura and Gaara could steal a few minutes together, even a few dear friends were gone, lost to the battle.

The war eventually came to a close on a fateful day of April. Orochimaru had joined the battlefield, locked in combat with the Minister of Magic. Sakura had been partaking in the battle then, to help out their thinned out numbers. She saw him fall and her heart clenched, praying she could do something to save him. When she reached him, Orochimaru set his eyes on her, and Sakura was forced to protect herself. She was thankful for Tsunade’s teachings, or she wouldn’t have lasted the minute Naruto and Pain needed to come to her rescue. Naruto was filled with rage, grieving the death of his father, and Pain had simply been interested in dueling Orochimaru. With the three of them together, they managed to forced the wizard to start a retreat, but he was stopped by Gaara and Shikamaru, who had already given orders to reposition their troops, cutting off any reinforcements the snake could have gotten. Outnumbered, he tried to surrender, but Pain didn’t give him an opportunity, killing him where he stood. The death of their leader caused such dissent that it was a matter of days before they too were cleaned out.

The war was declared ended, and they were left to pick up the pieces.

Sakura, Hinata and Ino all returned to Hogwarts, to take their NEWTs in May. Naruto, Gaara and Shikamaru were all offered positions as Aurors, by the new head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Uchiha Itachi. The three accepted and Itachi assigned Shikamaru as head of the Auror department. 

Sasori and Deidara returned to London to open up a new artisan’s shop, where they sold artistic decorations for the modern Wizarding household. Konan was offered a position as a Hogwarts professor, which she refused, choosing to remain by her husband’s side. Pain succeeded in using the status as war hero to ascend to Minister of Magic, and his first act was to outlaw any sort of prejudice related to someone’s birth. Calling a muggleborn mudblood would result in a hefty fine and a year in Azkaban. Sakura approved of this wholeheartedly, even if she did think that nobody deserved Azkaban.

Her time as a War Healer allowed Sakura to bypass the training for Healer in St. Mungus and she was quickly instated as a full-time Healer. Hinata took over her clan, ousting her father as a secret Orochimaru supporter. She donated a large part of the clan fortune to several orphanages for war orphans as a means of making up for her father’s sins.

A service was held for those who fell in combat, and Sakura spent all of her time in front of Tsunade’s grave, sending her prayers to the woman who helped her become who she was today. Gaara stood by her side, offering his support, which she was grateful for.

As they walked side by side out of the somber cemetery, Sakura promised herself to make her mentor proud.

“Gaara, do you think we can do this? Life on our own, no professor, no commander, making our own decisions?”

“Together, yes.”


	8. Epilogue

“Mommy, where's daddy?”

“He’s meeting us there, sweetheart.”

“But what if he’s busy again? What if he doesn’t show up?”

“Did he promise he would?”   


“Yes…”

“Then he’ll be there. Your father would never break a promise.”

Sakura smiled at the girl with short pink hair and green eyes. It felt like looking in a mirror of her past self. Her daughter had inherited her looks completely, the only difference being the shade of pink, for the girl’s hair was a bright pink, instead of the pastel pink of her mother. Sakura kept walking with her eleven year old daughter to Charing Cross. She was finally heading to Hogwarts. Sakura knew she’d miss her baby terribly, but a part of her was also relieved. Shiho was as demanding of her attention as her father, and between the two, Sakura barely had any time for herself.

“Mommy, I’m nervous. What if I don’t get sorted into Ravenclaw?”

“Shiho, my best friends aren’t from Ravenclaw. Your father isn’t from Ravenclaw. I’ll love you no matter what house you’re sorted into.”

“But I want to be smart like you mommy. Uncle Naruto is always saying you’re the brightest witch around.”

Sakura laughed. Uzumaki Naruto had recently become Minister of Magic, after Pain had decided that being Minister was too much paperwork. He would frequently consult Sakura in any decisions involving health issues, for she was the Head of St. Mungus. Recently they had been working on a policy that had been originally proposed by Tsunade, to include mandatory health and care lessons as a part of the Hogwarts curriculum. Kakashi, the new headmaster was receptive, and they were in the final stages of implementation.

The two pink-haired females finally reached the train station and headed to platform 9.

“Are you ready?” Sakura asked her daughter, who gulped nervously. They ran towards the barrier that hid the magical train station and quickly crossed over. Sakura watched Shiho admire her surroundings, as she herself had once done. The girl ran her eyes through the crowd and spotted someone.

“Daddy!”

She ran towards her father, leaving her mother to take care of the abandoned luggage. Sakura pushed the cart towards her husband, watching him scoop his daughter in his arms and spin her around as she loved. She joined the two with a bright smile.

“Sakura! Gaara!”

The family’s happy moment was interrupted by Ino and her family. She was being followed by her lazy husband and her two sons, both just as lazy as their father. Shiho immediately started chatting with the two Nara boys excitedly, while the adults had their own conversation.

“I see Naruto allowed you to come home to see your daughter off.” Shikamaru smirked at Gaara, who huffed.

When Naruto took over the Ministry, he made Gaara the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. He made a wise decision, for Gaara thrived in his new position, but it did force him to travel more than he would have liked to. Shikamaru was working under Naruto as his most trusted adviser, and Ino had her own shop, where she sold all manners of exotic plants.

“Dad! They’re here!”

A blonde boy with blonde hair and striking sky blue eyes joined them. Soon he was followed by his father, the Minister of Magic and his mother.

“Yo!”

Just like that, the gang was all together, watching their kids play around all being childhood friends, due to the closeness of their parents.

“You should all board the train, unless it’s going to leave without you!” Naruto scared all the youngsters, who all quickly ran towards the train, waving farewell to their amused parents. 

“I’m never going to get used to watching them leave.” Ino mentioned, tears in her eyes.

“Eventually, you do.” Konan joined them, watching her own daughter waving her goodbye.

The adults chatted around for a while longer before splitting off. Gaara and Sakura walked home, living close to the station.

“You took the day off?” he asked his wife.

“Yeah. I wanted to make sure I had time to see Shiho off properly.”

“We should have another brat.”

“Gaara!”

The happy couple wasted no time in ducking in a nearby alley so they could apparate home. A couple months later, a happy Shiho received a letter from her mother, telling her that she would soon have a baby brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is finally finished!
> 
> I'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to read this, and I hope you all got as much enjoyment as I did.
> 
> Thank you for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my new story! This will follow Sakura's 7 years in Hogwarts, with a few chapters after dedicated to her post-Hogwarts life. It's mostly a slice of life story, about character development, particularly Sakura and Hinata's development. I look forward to having everyone around to watch this progress and evolve.


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